JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Most people utilize the internet to access healthcare information to support health care decisions, and the hospital websites as the first point of contact provides healthcare information services for consumers. However, little is known about the current information services provided by Chinese large hospital websites.

Objective:

This study aims to evaluate and compare the information services of large hospital websites between China and the United States. Hopefully our findings would benefit the worldwide hospital managers in providing online service information.

Methods:

This study adopted a cross-sectional analytical approach to evaluate large hospital websites in China and the United States in 2020. A total of 300 large hospitals were randomly selected with half in China and half in the United States. Based on the 7Ps Marketing mix, we identified 39 items that represent typical hospital website information services, covering seven dimensions: product, price, place, propagation, people, process and physical evidence.

Results:

Most of the items (34 items) of information services offered by hospital websites in China were lower covered than that in the United States, but the 5 items (appointment by the third-party platform, mobile payment, hospital value, the hospital environment display and doctor’s profile) have higher coverage in China. The average score for hospital websites in China and the United States were 13.25±2.99 points and 23.16±2.76 points respectively. Among the top 15 comparable scoring items with significant differences, Chinese hospital websites were all lower covered and items in three dimensions of people, product and propagation accounted for 80%. Generally high scores were given to the south areas of China and north areas of the United States.

Conclusions:

Hospital websites in China lagged behind that in the United states with regards to information services offered. We recommend the hospitals managers in China put more emphasis on the dimensions of people, product and propagation of 7Ps Marketing mix in the construction of information services on hospital websites. Through the comparison of the large hospital websites in China and the United States, our study findings can provide suggestions for forming standard hospital website construction guideline over the world.