When Steward Health Care, parent company of Carney Hospital, 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, Carney Hospital 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, Carney Hospital, along with its fellow Steward hospitals, is among the first group of acute care providers in Massachusetts to offer a fully mobile-integrated 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 patient-centered online experience,” says Walter J. Ramos, J.D., President of Carney Hospital.

 

“The audiences that matter above all for the services and information we’re offering online are our patients and potential patients,” says 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, Carney Hospital 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.carneyhospital.org allowing patient-users to instantly find a doctor, make an appointment, or access medical information through the “StewardConnect” portal.

 

Carney Hospital 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 Carney Hospital - 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.

 

Since 1863, Carney Hospital has served the City of Boston and neighboring communities. Carney Hospital has received the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for health care quality and safety and numerous other quality and safety awards. The 159-bed hospital has more than 400 physicians and delivers quality care to approximately 37,000 patients annually. Carney Hospital provides Dorchester and surrounding communities with convenient, local access to quality primary care, emergency medicine and a range of specialties and subspecialties including; critical care, family medicine, cardiology, neurology, oncology, orthopedics, ambulatory care and adolescent, adult and geriatric psychiatry. Carney Hospital is part of the Steward Health Care Network. To learn more, please visit www.carneyhospital.org.