Kimberlee D Snyder
Keynote: Health Care: Current Reviews
There are increasing numbers of consumers using the Internet to search for health information and evaluate hospital
services by reading patient comments regarding their experience with a hospital. As United States legislation mandates
effectively using technology to directly engage people in their healthcare decisions and maintenance, websites are becoming an
important conduit to not only provide details on what services are offered, but to also engage and communicate with customers
in their or their family member’s health. Hospitals need to design user-friendly websites that will empower patients and family
members to be involved in their health care. A model will be presented that can be used to identify how well hospital websites
are designed for engagement and other informational features. Hospitals can analyze features in their website that encourage
patient interaction with their healthcare according to the levels of the model. Of the four levels identified in the model, website
designs can range from “informing” to “collaborative”. In addition an assessment tool based on the model will be presented
that objectively measures the level of hospital website patient engagement. Along with this assessment tool, a process will be
proposed to incorporate quality and community participation; these steps are used to continuously improve websites. Best
practices and “do’s and don’ts of website design” will conclude the presentation.
Kimberlee D Snyder is a Professor of Operations Management at Winona State University, Minnesota. Her research and publications center on areas of process
and performance improvement and technology usage in Healthcare.