London Health Sciences Centre and London Health Sciences Foundation

London Health Science Centre is located across three brick and mortar sites -South Street Hospital, University Hospital and Victoria Hospital – and at two family medical centres. Their physicians and staff number more than 10,000 and together, they provided care for more than one million patients in 2006. London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), one of Canada’s largest acute-care teaching hospitals, noted for many medical breakthroughs, is dedicated to excellence in patient care, teaching and research. Through their affiliation with The University of Western Ontario and more than 30 other educational institutions, they train more than 1,800 medical and health care professionals annually.

London Health Sciences Foundation (LHSF) is a non-profit, charitable organization established to strengthen London Health Sciences Centre's ability to provide health care of the highest quality to patients in southwestern Ontario and beyond. The Foundation connects donors, health care consumers, the community and health care experts — including physicians, allied professionals, researchers, staff and educators — in pursuit of medical excellence.

Need

LHSC  and LHSF required the development of public web designs for their websites - www.lhsc.on.ca  and www.lhsf.ca .   The websites needed to reflect an aligned common identity while maintaining their unique positioning including having their own navigation.

The original websites did not have a common identity or look related and this disconnect needed to be addressed.

                   

Solution

Prescient conducted a two phased – Assessment and Planning project.  In the Assessment phase, Prescient Digital Media conducted an online survey, interviews and a focus group and evaluated the LHSC and the LHSF  websites and  benchmarked  the websites to eight other health related websites. In addition, Prescient reviewed London Health Sciences Centre’s previous research which included a survey and search terms and London Health Sciences Foundation’s web logs and website task force presentation with recommendations. In the Planning phase, Prescient conducted a strategic workshop and developed a strategic planning, and also conducted a governance workshop to produce a model that LHSF could use in conjunction with LHSC’s existing model; created complimentary information architectures, wireframes and designs; as well, the designs were tested using focus groups and then finalized with design guidelines.

Assessment

1. Internet Site Evaluation – Evaluated existing Internet sites to determine their strengths and weaknesses using Prescient’s six categories.
2. Business Requirements Analysis
1. Stakeholder Interviews – 20 key stakeholders were interviewed to gather their requirements and gain their insight.
2. User Survey – Users were engaged through a survey to gather their requirements.
3. Focus Groups – Two focus groups were conducted with external users.
3. Benchmarking – An environmental scan of eight health related websites was conducted to gather and assess industry best practices.
4. Reviewed Research – Available research from both organizations was reviewed to gain more data for the current situation as well as an understanding of how the websites are measured.

Planning

1. Strategic Planning – Conducted a joint SWOT analysis workshop and defined mission, goals, and performance measures.
2. Governance Recommendations – Conducted a workshop with both organizations utilizing the content requirements analysis and existing governance model from LHSC, made additional recommendations for optimizing the sites ownership and decision-making process as well as in how the two organizations can work together.
3. Information Architecture – Created two information architectures using best practices, the assessment requirements and common, as well as unique, offerings for both sites.
4. Wireframes – Created page schematics for both websites, leveraging common features and highlighting focus areas.
5. Design – Created two design concepts building on the new brand guidelines and highlighting specific requirements for the organizations – both organizations wanted to emphasize real people and have a care focus; the Hospital also required a focus on quality of service and the Foundation on events and activities to raise funds.
6. Focus Group – Conducted a focus group on the designs to gather further input and impressions and adjusted the design concept.
7. Final Designs and Guidelines – Delivered final designs and design guidelines for implementation.

Results

Prescient worked with both London Health Sciences Centre and London Health Sciences Foundation to understand their unique requirements, maintain consistencies and deliver an exciting design.

For London Health Sciences Centre, Prescient helped define and understand the need to present a caring and professional look that also showcased the research and teaching aspects of the hospitals and drove users to commonly requested information.

For London Health Sciences Foundation, Prescient helped define and understand the requirement to personalize the approach by showcasing real stories and highlighting fundraising events as well as connecting the donating opportunity to those personally affected with the programs that benefit from the funding.

Prescient worked with both organizations and multiple stakeholders to build consensus and manage the project simultaneously to maintain a cohesive, consistent, and branded identity. Both sites have been well received and LHSC continues to work with other internal programs to fully implement the brand.

Awards

On June 9, 2008, London Health Sciences Centre was given the Award of Excellence from the London IABC for their website.