Influence of Hospital Website Attributes on the Recommendation of Customers in Mid-sized Hospitals

Chang, Hyejung; Seo, Kyunghwa; Jeong, Mina; Lee, Jihyeon

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
Mid-sized hospital websites were assessed to examine how their attributes influence outcome indicators as a potential marketing strategy. Specifically, the website attributes considered were accessibility, content sufficiency, and layout design, while outcome indicators were evaluated, based on satisfaction with the website, intention to revisit the website, and intention to recommend the hospital.
METHODS
Five representative websites were selected according to their ranks derived from major ranking sites. The diversity of the websites were emphasized. Then, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 74 respondents. Collected data was analyzed, using frequency, correlation, and repeated measures analysis of variance.
RESULTS
All three attributes were related to satisfaction with the website; in addition, both content sufficiency and layout design were significantly related to the intention to revisit. As for the intention to recommend the hospital, only the content sufficiency was significant. In particular, the sufficiencies on 'disease or symptoms' and 'question and answer' were important to all three outcome indicators.
CONCLUSION
The websites serve as a marketing tool in managing mid-sized hospitals. Well-designed websites containing sufficient contents facilitate visitor's satisfaction and intention to revisit the website, as well as furthering their intention to recommend the hospital.