Healthcare Market Research in Action: Measuring, Understanding and Improving  Communication of Healthcare Information

For a copy of the Report on Hospital and Community Crisis Communications Management, click here. Please give us your feedback on the conclusions and recommendations in this report.

The news no longer is dominated by the 2009 H1N1 Influenza A (the scientific name for this flu), apparently originating in Mexico.   This flu strain could return to the US and other countries in the northern hemisphere in the Fall of 2009.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the flu is still finding its way to the United Kingdom, Europe (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden,Switzerland), Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel, as well as the United States and Canada. Also added are China (Hong Kong), Republic of Korea, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Panama. 

WHO is advocating unrestricted travel between countries. There is no reason to restrict travel to the United States and Canada.  But those who have flu symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headaches, chills, and fatigue) are asked to see a doctor and not travel.

In the US, states with confirmed cases are Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Washington DC, and Wisconsin.

US flu cases have been described as "mild", with little differentiation from seasonal flu.

Our research shows that the first place health care consumers in the US go for health news on the web is news sites such as CNN and Fox.  The second place consumers go is to websites dedicated to health information, such as WebMD.   The third place they go to is local hospital websites. For many consumers, Google is the most popular option.

We wanted to see how many hospital websites in one region of the United States, the "Carolinas", including North Carolina and South Carolina, had readily accessible information on the current worldwide flu outbreak.  We'velooked at how quickly hospitals provide information over time and whether they maintain an infromation flow. We will look at public expectations of hospitals to provide public health information.  Here are the results ...

Results

As of May 5, 2009, 53 hospitals/health systems, up from 19 on April 28, 2009, and one hospital association have, on the home page, either information or a direct link to information available to the public on H1N1 influenza A (hereafter referred to as "the flu"). For an example of the use of a video in explaining the flu, go to  Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Also see Baylor Health Care for a presentation, with video and local copy, on the flu and how the hospital is responding.

If we couldn’t find information on the home page, we put the word “swine”  and  "H1N1" in the search box if the site had a search engine.. And we clicked on "news" and blog links in our search for the flu information.

The results: 53 hospital/system web sites out of  83 CHPRMS hospital sites had information about the flu either on the home page or through a search engine.  Only 30 hospitals do not have any information that we could find on the flu.

Our recommendation for health care organizations: Put a link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on your home page now.  That’s the quickest and easiest way for  hospitals to provide residents in their communities with up-to-date and factual information.  The link is http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/. If you have an infectious disease physician on staff, do an article, a podcast or a video -- on your home page or through a link on the home  page. Coordinate release of information with your state health agency as well as with city and county agencies.  The National Incident Management System (NIMS) defines how the Incident Command System (ICS)  brings together Federal, state, county and city agencies and organizations to confront an issue such as the 2009 H1N1 Influenza A virus. 

Hospital public relations and communications professionals who are not NIMS qualified should at least take the free online NIMS course (IS-702) for public information professionals at the FEMA website.

The hospitals or hospital systems that have information or a link directly to information on the home pages are: University Health Systems of Eastern North Carolina, Pitt County Memorial Hospital, UNC Healthcare, Rex Health, Providence Hospitals (Columbia SC), New Hanover Regional Medical Center, High Point Regional Health System, Heritage Hospital, Beaufort Memorial Hospital and Caldwell Memorial.The hospital association with information on the flu on its home page is the South Carolina Hospital Association.  Note: Pitt County Memorial and Heritage Hospital have the same web site home page as members of the University Health Systems of Eastern North Carolina.

Other hospitals now have the flu information or a link on their home pages: Carolinas Medical Center, Haywood Regional Medical Center, Maria Parham Medical Center, Mission Hospital, Morehead Memorial Hospital, Moses Cone Health System, Carolinas Medical Center NorthEast, Novant Health,  Onslow Memorial Hospital, Pardee Hospital, Presbyterian Healthcare, Randolph Hospital, Rutherford Hospital, Scotland Health Care System, St. Luke's Hospital, Stanly Regional Medical Center, Transylvania Regional Hospital, AnMed Health, Georgetown Hospital System, Laurens County Health Care System, Medical University of South Carolina, Palmetto Health and Self Regional Healthcare.

More hospitals that have information on this flu on their websites are:  Alamance Regional Medical Center,  Albermarle Health, CaroMont Health,  Brunswick Community Hospital,  Columbus Regional Healthcare System, Northern Hospital of Surry County, Abbeville Area Medical Center, Grand Strand Regional Medical Center, Kershaw County Medical Center,  Loris Healthcare System,  and Conway Medical Center.   A hospital that is a member of CHPRMS but is located in Savannah GA is Memorial Health , which also has flu information on its website. 

Hospitals that have information through their search engine, including information services such as FastHealth or WebMD, are: Rowan Regional Medical Center, Duke University Health Systems, Cherokee Indian Hospital, Newberry County Memorial Hospital, and Piedmont Medical Center.

Other hospitals have a link somewhere other than their home page. Cape Fear Valley, Carolinas Medical Center (a second listing but a different site),  Spartanburg Regional Health System, and Lexington Medical Center (in a blog).

We really had to seach for information on some web sites.  Residents tell us they aren't going to dig through hospital web sites for critical health information. They'll just google the health information for which they are looking.

While not a hospital, Premier, Inc. has also posted the flu information on its web site.

If you are a member of CHPRMS and your hospital does have swine flu information on its home page or through a search engine on your site -- and we couldn't find it and you aren't listed above, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and we'll add your name. Or, if your hospital has added swine flu information on the home page or through a search engine, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it about this, and we'll add your name to the list of hospitals that have information available about swine flu.

"Health care consumers are hungry for the latest information on health issues - especially the flu issue - and would like to be able to find that information on their local hospital's web site," said Emerson Smith, a medical sociologist and President of Metromark Market Research. "But hospitals have various strategies on how they use their web sites.  Some are designed to be simply billboards on the web and internet brochures.  For some hospitals, community health issues are someone else's responsibility. In our research, we find less than 5 percent of the people in most communities have accessed a local hospital website in a year's time. And many of those don't find what they are looking for.  In our interviews with patients, they're asking, 'What role are hospitals going to take in informing us -- now that this flu is in the Carolinas?"

WHO has officially changed the name of this flu to H1N1 influenza A because pigs have been slaughtered and buried in parts of the world, under the belief that pigs are the transmitters of the flu.  The belief is that if the pigs are gone, the flu will be gone.  Pork producers everywhere have reported problems with the term "swine" in reference to this Influenza A, leading to a reduction in the consumption of pork products.  

Note: the Spring Conference for CHPRMS is in Columbia SC USA was on Friday, May 8, 2009 at the conference center at the SC Hospital Association.  We had great speakers.  Thanks to Margaret Gregory for the planning and execution of this event and to President Michelle Affronte for her leadership. CHPRMS has a new logo and is now planning for the Fall Conference. See the CHPRMS site for details.