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 ...