Examination of Corporate Websites of Private Hospitals: Example of Marmara Region

Abstract

Objective: Active use of information and communication technologies is getting more common in the field of health. Not only the private sector but also public hospitals can provide the users with high-quality and fast service using the internet for appointments, laboratory results, information, promotion, and many other issues. Material and Methods: This study aimed to examine the content of corporate web pages of private hospitals in the Marmara region in terms of promotion and public relations. The research is in a qualitative base, and it is a content analysis study. Between May 2017 and July 2017, the corporate web pages of all 223 private hospitals in the Marmara region were evaluated on the basis of 18 different criteria, which were determined by the result of a literature review. Results: It has been observed that 11.21% of the organization chart of the hospitals, 52.01% of the management staff, 20.62% of the quality staff, 28.3% of the manager's message and 7.71% of the self-evaluation. Another finding of the study is that options such as 360*tour, live support, which have become popular recently and become a good public relations-marketing tool, are not available on many hospitals' websites. Another result reached in the study is that the foreign language option is found in 67.71% of the hospitals web pages. It should be noted that although this rate constitutes the majority, it is not sufficient today. In spite of these, 92.8% of the hospitals made the general promotion of the institution on their corporate web pages, 86.1% explained their mission and vision, 77.13% of the quality policies are announced and 77.13% has the option to receive feedback on satisfaction are positive results. Conclusion: As a result of the research, although hospitals mostly had their promotion on their web pages, it was seen that they are quite weak in providing new practical and fast services on their pages. The number of websites with a photo/video gallery and a foreign language option were also lower than expected. In conclusion, the websites are not being used effectively in corporate marketing and public relations. © 2020 Archives of Health Science and Research. All rights reserved.