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Web-Side Manner Mistake #1: Making Basic Tasks Difficult

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mistake1The primary healthcare manager in most households is a busy, working middle-aged woman. These women can find themselves coordinating doctor’s appointments, insurance claims and healthcare decisions for their children, their spouse, aging parents and themselves–not an easy task. These healthcare managers are looking for a one-stop shop for all their healthcare needs and they want it on-the-go. What they typically encounter, however, is a complicated web site focused on the health systems’ accomplishments instead of their needs.

In our experience, patients are pretty consistent in the tasks they are looking to accomplish on a healthcare system web site. Regardless of condition, most patients visit a health system web site for the following information:

TOP PATIENT TASKS ON HEALTH SYSTEM SITES

  1. To find the hospital’s phone number
  2. To locate a facility and get directions
  3. To find a specific doctor
  4. To schedule an appointment
  5. To pay their bills online

No matter how attractive your website’s design might be, no matter how well you position your services and treatments, if patients can’t easily complete the tasks above, your digital experience is missing the mark when it comes to important, high-frequency tasks.

THE CURE

Assess your website (and mobile version) by conducting a usability test with actual patients. If they can’t figure out how to do the top five tasks listed above from the home page–it’s probably time for a redesign. Consider creating a quick links menu or devoting your prime home page real estate to accomplishing these tasks.

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Excerpted from Improving Your Web-Side Manner: 5 Mistakes Even the Best Health Systems Make–And How to Fix Them. Download the complete guide here.

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