News

May 26, 2016

PIONEERING THE “PATIENT-USER” EXPERIENCE ONLINE

When Steward Health Care, parent company of Good Samaritan Medical Center, set out to pioneer a new, online patient-user experience, they decided to draw inspiration not from other medical industry players, but instead from the digital presence of major retail brands. As part of the effort, Good Samaritan Medical Center now has a completely revamped online look – one tailored to make it easier for patients to access services, find information, and schedule appointments.
 
By partnering with technology providers who have helped build the online presence of brands like Puma, Timex, and Warner Music Group, Good Samaritan Medical Center, along with its fellow Steward hospitals, is among the first group of acute care providers in Massachusetts to offer a fully mobileintegrated website that will deliver custom content for patients based on their prior in-site visits.
 
“Achieving this distinction is both possible and necessary because websites in the healthcare sector lag far behind other industries in embracing fundamental innovations to create an easier and more patientcentered online experience,” said John A. Jurczyk, FACHE, President of Good Samaritan Medical Center.
 
“The audiences that matter above all for the services and information we’re offering online are our patients and potential patients,” said Colleen Walsh, Director of Digital Communications for Steward Health Care. “As a community-based health care service provider, Steward is built around our patients, and that philosophy now extends to our presence online. By providing the level of user-oriented experience that consumers have come to expect from major retail brands, Steward is leading our industry toward putting the patient first – not just through the world-class care we provide, but through how we offer access to those world-class services.”
 
As a result, Good Samaritan Medical Center and Steward Health Care, a national leader in health care delivery innovations, are now leading on a new front – pioneering a “patient-user experience” built to meet the highest commercial standards. Input from hundreds of patients through surveys, interviews, and usability tests helped drive the creation of the new hospital websites. The custom response patient “dial pad” is among the marquee innovations within the new www.goodsamaritanmedical.org allowing patient-users to instantly find a doctor, make an appointment, or access medical information through the “StewardConnect” portal.
 
Good Samaritan Medical Center and Steward engaged two major technology partners to help create a superior patient-user experience within the market: Acquia, one of the nation’s fastest growing private technology companies and a leading provider of cloud based digital experiences (Puma, Warner Music Group, Lush, Timex, and more), and Hatch 130, a New England-based digital and creative service agency (NBA, National Grid, and more).
 
As part of their innovative move towards pioneering and prioritizing the patient-user experience, Steward has launched new sites across its entire network – including Good Samaritan Medical Center - to introduce a seamless mobile experience for health care consumers.
 
This video explains more about the new Steward.org personalized content feature, while this video provides an overview of the new Steward.org.