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Sites That Should Not Go Unseen
Local health-providers create Internet portals that are helpful, informative and even kinda fun
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Business New Haven
3/3/2003
By: Karen Singer
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Like most businesses these days, health-care providers are using the Internet to increase awareness and generate sales.
Here's a sampling of Web sites produced by or for New Haven-area health-care organizations.
Organization: Yale-New Haven Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Yale University
Site address: www.ynhh.org
Mission: Established in 1995 as an online information source for patients and potential patients about the myriad services provided by the hospital. Site currently has more than 500 pages, and is done in-house.
Traffic: About 32,000 visitors in an average month, according to Internet marketing director Jan Taylor. Of those requesting physician referrals, 55 percent live in the New Haven area, 20 percent in surrounding towns, nine percent in the remainder of the state and 15 percent outside Connecticut, including national and international.
Best features: Home page, followed by the employment page, physician referrals, Children's Hospital, staff directory and online resources. Also popular is "Health Links," a four-part area with continuing updates in cardiac, pediatric, women's health and cancer. Taylor says plans are underway to add information about the Yale Psychiatric Hospital and an online chat with an advisor for physician referrals.
Ease of use: Site is a user-friendly source for patients and visitors, as well as those seeking referrals to Yale and its affiliate hospitals. Also has good sections and search capabilities on health care, including an extensive health information library.
Organization: Athena Communities, which operates Laurel Gardens, a health-care provider with eight upscale assisted and independent living facilities in the state, including Orange, Woodbridge, Hamden, Milford and Trumbull, as well as a memory-impairment care community in Glastonbury. Sister company Athena Healthcare runs 20 skilled nursing homes, most of them in Connecticut.
Site address: www.laurelgardens.net
Mission: Launched in November 2001 as a supplement to print, TV and radio ads, and as a way to provide a "unique perspective" on assisted living via virtual tours and other Web tools. Currently maintained in-house, the 30-page site is targeted toward decision-makers, the majority of whom are children concerned about the welfare of their parents.
Traffic: Public-relations manager John Sponauer will say only that the number of visitors to the site has tripled since last year, but will reveal no hard numbers. He says that bad weather, holidays and Monday mornings are the most active times. Sponauer also says between 30 and 50 percent of people who contact Laurel Gardens mention they've visited the Web site.
Best features: The front page, assisted living information pages, contact pages and community events listings.
Ease of use: Extremely user-friendly. Especially helpful are contact details and virtual tours of each of the facilities.
Organization: Visiting Nurse Association of South Central Connecticut, a non-profit home health-care agency serving residents in 35 towns in New Haven, Fairfield and Middlesex counties.
Site address: www.vnascc.org
Mission: Launched in 2001 to provide links for people of all ages seeking home health care. Specialty programs include mental health services, maternal and child health care and oncology nursing. Site has an online patient referral form, and also posts job listings for nurses, who may apply online.
Traffic: The site doesn't track visits, but public affairs director Betsy Percoski says she receives about half a dozen e-mails a month, which tend to be "very specific" requests. Some come from out-of-state family members looking for care for an in-state resident.
Ease of use: Pretty straightforward, though fairly limited and Web site hasn't been updated in nearly a year. VNA, however, is planning to give the 12-page site, maintained in-house, a facelift soon, to help generate interest in the organization's 2004 centennial celebration. Details of a gingerbread house competition will be among the activities listed. May also include a link to CareSource, an affiliate with private duty resources.
Organization: Healing Gateways Center, a Guilford-base source of stress relief for mind, body and spirit.
Site address: www.healinggateways.com
Mission: Established in 1995 to provide "bite-sized" bits of information about the center's stress-relief offerings, which include a variety of counseling and body work styles, and what co-owner Richard Porter touts as the only flotation tank in New England. Aimed at people of all ages, but majority of clients are in the 30- to 50-year-old range. The 129- page Web site is maintained in-house.
Traffic: Between 1,000 and 2,000 visitors weekly, including questions from "people all over the world," says Porter. Follow-up calls range from five to 20 per week, with "most becoming clients."
Best features: Varies depending on the month. At the moment the "Grief and Loss Counseling" pages get top billing. Other well-viewed areas are descriptions of the center's 54 workshops and sections of its self-published book, Blinding Flashes of the Obvious. Healing Gateways will move to a bigger building in April, and a forthcoming site update will tout new activities, including yoga, tai chi and Pilates.
Ease of use: User-friendly site offering a good introduction to a smorgasbord of alternative stress-relief options ranging from chakra balancing and S.A.D. Sunlight Therapy to Thai Wat bodywork and Native American ear coning. Choose from a menu of more than two dozen options. Also has links to "interesting" and/or offbeat-looking Web sites.
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