How wired are U.S. hospitals? A study of patient-oriented interactive tools

Abstract

This study examined U.S. hospital websites to find out how they have used interactive tools to engage and serve their patients. The findings and recommendations from this study will provide guidance to the development of the U.S. hospitals and even beyond for at least the next decade. A content analysis was conducted to compare The Most Wired Hospitals with the total U.S. hospital population and compare the 2018 data and the 2011 data so as to observe the horizontal and vertical differences. The study has found that, in 2018, U.S. hospitals have adopted significantly more interactive tools and reached an average of 8.5 tools; core e-business tools have gained the biggest increase; most of such tools almost reached ubiquity among the Most Wired Hospitals. The study concludes that using interactive tools to serve patients on U.S. hospital websites and on social media is becoming a norm, that the majority of U.S. hospitals were adequately equipped to interact with their patients through their websites, and that whether to make a hospital website action-driven is more determined by the hospital administration’s awareness, determination, and strategic planning than by hospital size.