A Redesign Needs Better Content as Well as a New Appearance

These are valid reasons. Updating the design and supporting smartphones are particularly important in today's mobile-centred communications environment.
Recruitment information is also important, as hospitals face shortages of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals.

However, a hospital website redesign is usually a major project undertaken only once every few years. Costs can range from hundreds of thousands to several million yen, depending on the number of pages and the developer.
To make a redesign successful, we believe the website's role and objectives must be clear.

Most hospital websites primarily serve the local community, so attracting visitors is particularly important. Changing the appearance alone is insufficient; the content must also improve.

Even within one hospital website, the amount of content can vary significantly between clinical departments. Simply including or omitting a doctor's photograph may affect whether someone decides to seek care.
An explanation of a condition and its treatment may also lead to an outpatient visit. Providing useful information is essential.

Obtaining copy from doctors who are busy with daily clinical work can be difficult. Younger doctors often recognise the importance of the website, and we are seeing more actively contribute content.

To make writing easier, we provide draft outlines for almost every page, not only clinical departments. Hospitals can adapt them to their circumstances, which tends to make collecting content easier.

Consider Running Costs after Launch

A redesign budget should include ongoing monthly costs as well as development costs. Running costs vary by supplier and by the amount of updating requested. Costs tend to be lower when the hospital handles updates itself.

We introduce our Hospital CMS, which allows anyone to update content. We recommend letting hospitals manage straightforward updates themselves to avoid unnecessary expense. See the Hospital CMS section for details.
We provide support to reduce the burden on hospitals as much as possible.

Experience with More Than 40 Hospital Websites

We bring extensive expertise in hospital website development.

Over approximately nine years, we have developed websites for around 40 hospitals. Hospital websites differ from ordinary corporate and service websites, including in the behaviour of their visitors.

Providing information to patients who visit the hospital is important. Offering useful healthcare information to people who do not currently visit also adds value. We believe this makes a website more accessible, attracts new users and helps create a hospital that is open to a wider community.

A website's launch or redesign is only the beginning. Hospital websites grow through daily analysis and repeated improvement. We support this growth through the Plan–Do–Check–Act (PDCA) cycle.

Content Proposals

Before development, we organise the required information through discussions with hospital staff. Taking the hospital's priorities into account, we use our experience to propose suitable content.
Some content is especially important on hospital websites and must be prioritised.

Page Layout

Once the content is agreed, we propose a home page layout and refine it towards the hospital's vision. Hospital websites must accommodate visitors of all ages.

Home Page Design

Using the content and layout, we create design proposals reflecting the hospital's characteristics, vision, image and colours. The home page attracts the most visitors to an individual page and serves as the hospital's public face, so we give it particular attention.

We refine the design together with hospital staff. A single proposal can make it difficult to elicit ideas, so we always prepare two or three options and improve them through comparison.

Design is more than appearance. Some websites focus so heavily on looks that important information is lost. Judging a hospital website only by visual appeal is risky. Visitors span all ages, and younger smartphone users may view different pages from desktop users.

Even an attractive website will lose visitors and fail to achieve its goals if it is difficult to use. Usability and structure are essential parts of design.

A premium impression may sometimes be appropriate, but trust, cleanliness and reassurance are particularly important for hospital websites. The information intended for users must also be conveyed clearly and accurately.

Inner Page Design

Although the home page is usually the most visited individual page, it accounts for around 20% of all page views on hospital websites with tens or hundreds of pages, depending on the total page count.
Inner pages account for approximately 80%.

More than 70% of visitors arrive through search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Search terms differ between users, and visibility depends on those terms.

The hospital name is the most common search term, but not everyone arrives that way. People using other terms are more likely to be new users. Inner pages that serve as landing pages are therefore particularly important. Their content, layout and design must help visitors find the information they need without frustration.

We propose inner page designs based on experience of which pages serve as landing pages, which have high bounce rates, and whether visitors received satisfying information even when they left after one page.

System Development

Websites include more than static pages: contact forms, recruitment applications and health screening appointments are examples. Hospitals also have many frequently updated pages. We provide systems that let hospital staff update these themselves, which can be faster than asking a supplier.

Integration with Other Systems: Appointments and Health Screening

Requests for consultation and health screening appointments from smartphones are increasing. Adding booking functions to the hospital website allows integration with other systems.
Online booking can help increase appointments, encourage younger patients to visit and reduce the time staff spend answering telephone calls.

Hospital websites serve not only patients but also staff, local healthcare providers, suppliers and recruitment-related users.

We receive many requests to systematise interactions with these users and expect such projects to increase.

Smartphone and Tablet Support

Smartphones now account for more than 60% of visits. Since Google's 2016 announcement of mobile-first indexing, we have adopted responsive hospital websites. We also support tablet sizes for the smaller proportion of users—under approximately 10%—who use them.

News and Announcements

The frequency of news updates shows how active a hospital website is. Frequent updates can improve its standing with visitors and search engines.
Typical announcements include:

When hospitals update announcements themselves, they can continue publishing current information.

Outpatient Schedules and Doctor Rosters

Outpatient schedules may also identify the doctors responsible for each clinic. These pages change weekly or monthly and are particularly important to patients planning a visit. Unexpected changes also make frequent updates necessary.

Clinic Cancellations and Substitute Doctors

A clinic may be cancelled at short notice, so this information must be updated promptly. Some hospitals include it in their outpatient schedules.

Clinical Department Information

Doctors change as staff join or leave. Many patients choose a doctor before visiting, making this information important. Including photographs as well as names can make a difference; we recommend photographs.

Staff changes can also mean that a listed specialty is temporarily unavailable or that a new department opens. Clinical department information is therefore both important and frequently updated.

Departments and Centres

Hospitals bring together specialists who work as teams to provide medical and social care. Websites often have separate pages for these professional departments.
Each profession has its own content and priorities. Some pages address students as well as patients. We are extending Hospital CMS use to these departments and centres.

Health Lectures

Many hospitals hold health lectures for local residents and patients as part of community communications. Frequency varies, but early publicity is important to attract participants. Depending on the schedule, these pages benefit from being updated by the hospital.

Hospital Newsletters

Like health lectures, regular newsletters support hospital communications. They convey openness and build familiarity and trust, while creating opportunities for people to engage with the hospital.

Many hospital websites offer newsletters as downloadable PDFs or other electronic files. An advantage of the website is that past issues remain available as an archive.

Recruitment Information

Recruitment is a common reason for redesigning a website, and separate recruitment sites have become more common in recent years. Where recruitment remains part of the main website, hospitals need to switch advertised roles on or off and update job details themselves. Leaving closed vacancies online or publishing open positions late can prevent timely recruitment.

Custom Development

We build flexible, bespoke hospital websites. We visit the hospital to discuss the reasons for redesigning, existing problems and requirements. Based on these discussions, we provide content proposals, two or three design options, copy coordination and photography as an integrated service.

Hospital CMS is included as standard. CMS functions can also be added to hospital-specific pages, and the website can integrate with consultation and health screening appointment systems.

Template Package

Drawing on our experience, we developed a template package with a clear, standard design. This all-in-one package provides the content users need and lets hospitals update it themselves. For a high-quality hospital website on a limited budget, we consider it our best-value option.

Package Comparison

*1: A design fee of JPY 40,000, excluding tax, applies.

*2: Photography costs JPY 40,000, excluding tax, plus travel expenses.

Development and Maintenance Fees

Please contact us about both custom development and template package pricing. We prepare a quotation after discussing your requirements.

Maintenance and update fees are discussed according to the contract and other requirements.

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