Our KGH site's web presence has been recognized with an award from the Interactive Media Council
Our KGH site's web presence has been recognized with an award from the Interactive Media Council
Credit
Matthew Manor

Every month more than 25,000 patients, family members, job seekers and staff members visit the KGH website. Since the site was redesigned in 2015 those visitors have benefitted from an improved digital experience according to the judges who sit on the Interactive Media Council. The site has recently been recognized with a 2018 IMA Award in the category of Outstanding Achievement in the Hospital Category beating out other hospital websites from around the world.

The award nominees were judged on five categories: design, content, functionality, usability and compliance with web standards and best practices. To win the award, a website must excel in each of those categories, rise above competitors' sites, and be a top choice for the target market, which in our case is patients and families. According to the IMA's website, the outstanding achievement distinction is the second highest honour that is bestowed by the organization and is an extremely challenging award to win.

"We were fortunate to work with a really good team at KHSC to build the site and help deliver on the goal of creating something that was patient and family centred" says Michael Grant Vice President, Strategic Solutions at Digital Echidna, the company that was hired to help redesign the KGH website. "By creating a responsive and fully accessible Drupal application, KHSC was able to deliver a relevant and meaningful web experience for its users across all device types. KHSC's commitment to excellence and dedication to its patients and families was really refreshing and one of the key elements of success for this project."

The website was built as part of an entire digital overhaul for KGH just ahead of the integration with Hotel Dieu Hospital and also included a new intranet site for staff. Now integrated under the banner of KHSC, the organization will begin to bring together both of the KGH an HDH external websites and intranet sites to build a common digital platform for the new organization.

"We found real success by engaging patients, families and front-line staff in the redesign of both the KGH intranet and external website," says Theresa MacBeth, Director of Strategy Management and Communications. "Building sites solely with the focus of our target audiences in mind sounds like a simple concept, but partnering with them so closely allowed us to see everything through a different lens. This approach really set us apart and clearly it was a big reason why we were recognized with this award. We'll continue to do this as we redesign our websites in the future."

KHSC hopes to have a new shared internal intranet in place before the fall of 2018 and afterwards will begin building a new external website to replace the former HDH and KGH sites. The new websites will be built using the existing tools and frameworks that were so well received when the KGH site was launched.

"We're looking forward to building something that will help our patients, families and external healthcare partners find the information they are looking for, while at the same time attracting talented individuals to come work for our organization while supporting the day-to-day business for those that already work here," says MacBeth. "Our websites are one of the main ways that we stay connected with our community, share the KHSC story and also build our brand in the healthcare sector. We've set a high-bar with this award and are committed to continuing to build on our successes with digital communication."