ArticleBMC medical informatics and decision making2010
Italian hospitals on the web: a cross-sectional analysis of official websites.
Article in BMC medical informatics and decision making, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Web-Based Medical Appointment Systems: A Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2017Pooled it
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- Evaluating the accessibility of public health websites: An exploratory cross-country study.Universal access in the information society · 2022Article
- Comparison of User-Oriented Information Services on the Websites of Large Hospitals in China and the United States: Cross-sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Article
- Information assessment of hospital websites in Croatia: How to develop accountability standards?The International journal of health planning and management · 2020Article
- Official Websites of Local Health Centers in Taiwan: A Nationwide Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Features of Online Hospital Appointment Systems in Taiwan: A Nationwide Survey.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Evaluating hospital websites in Kuwait to improve consumer engagement and access to health information: a cross-sectional analytical study.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2018Article
- Article
- Quality of Public Hospitals Websites: A Cross-Sectional Analytical Study in Iran.Acta informatica medica : AIM : journal of the Society for Medical Informatics of Bosnia & Herzegovina : casopis Drustva za medicinsku informatiku BiH · 2016Article
- Measuring reproductive tourism through an analysis of Indian ART clinic Websites.International journal of general medicine · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlthough the use of the Internet for health purposes has increased steadily in the last decade, only a few studies have explored the information provided by the websites of health institutions and no studies on the on-line activities of Italian hospitals have been performed to date. The aim of this study was to explore the characteristics of the contents and the user-orientation of Italian hospital websites.
methodsThe cross-sectional analysis considered all the Italian hospitals with a working website between December 2008 and February 2009. The websites were coded using an ad hoc Codebook, comprising eighty-nine items divided into five sections: technical characteristics, hospital information and facilities, medical services, interactive on-line services and external activities. We calculated a website evaluation score, on the basis of the items satisfied, to compare private (PrHs) and public hospitals, the latter divided into ones with their own website (PubHs-1) and ones with a section on the website of their Local Health Authority (PubHs-2). Lastly, a descriptive analysis of each item was carried out.
resultsOut of the 1265 hospitals in Italy, we found that 419 of the 652 public hospitals (64.3%) and 344 of the 613 PrHs (56.1%) had a working website (p = 0.01). The mean website evaluation score was 41.9 for PubHs-1, 21.2 for PubHs-2 and 30.8 for PrHs (p < 0.001).Only 5 hospitals out of 763 (< 1%) provided specific clinical performance indicators, such as the nosocomial infection rate or the surgical mortality rates. Regarding interactive on-line services, although nearly 80% of both public and private hospitals enabled users to communicate on-line, less than 18% allowed the reservation of medical services, and only 8 websites (1%) provided a health-care forum.
conclusionsA high percentage of hospitals did not provide an official website and the majority of the websites found had several limitations. Very few hospitals provided information to increase the credibility of the hospital and user confidence in the institution. This study suggests that Italian hospital websites are more a source of information on admissions and services than a means of communication between user and hospital.
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