Genesis HealthCare System

The Client

An integrated healthcare delivery system, Genesis HealthCare System is based in Zanesville, Ohio. The system includes a not-for-profit hospital, Genesis Hospital, an extensive network of more than 300 physicians and multiple outpatient care centers throughout the region. 

The Situation

As a community hospital, Genesis HealthCare delivers personalized care within its community, but the digital patient journey on its existing website did not provide the same level of care. To improve patient acquisition and retention, the system wanted to create a site that provided a better patient experience using an updated content strategy to deliver the right experience with the right content at the right time.

The Challenge

Genesis’ legacy content management system (CMS) didn’t allow for easy content creation, preventing it from delivering engaging interactions. Visitors couldn’t take care of their needs on the website. To make an appointment with a doctor, the user had to call and make the appointment or fill out a form, then receive a call back from a staffer to set up the appointment. As a result, user experience and conversion goals suffered. 

The Solution

Partnering with digital consultancy Perficient, the teams established the project’s detailed personas, audience segments, business goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). These findings influenced the site’s new content strategy, information architecture, design, personalization plan and roadmap for future enhancements.

While the patient portal allowed existing patients to schedule appointments online, new patients were unable to find and make an appointment on the site. Perficient integrated Genesis’ system with APIs provided by Epic, an electronic medical record (EMR) system, meaning that the health care system can now display available appointment slots to all users, based on the type of appointment they need. Acquia Cloud Platform’s HIPAA compliance and modern security features enabled seamless integration with Epic.

Drupal 9 and the Acquia Site Studio toolset improved the authoring experience for the Genesis marketing team and provided full site control. The component-based approach to building pages allows for flexibility as the team continues to evolve the site. And Acquia Personalization empowered marketers to quickly and easily create and deliver tailored content based on different patient acquisition campaigns. 

The site’s updated content strategy — including personalization — empowers patients to be better informed of their own health, arming them to more effectively participate in their own treatment. Comprehensive physician information, including schedules, means that patients can find a doctor who meets their criteria and is available at a convenient time without having to pick up the phone.

The Result

Utilizing Acquia Site Studio and the modules supported by the Drupal community, the new site was designed, built and launched with enhanced features and functionality in just six months. Since the launch of the new site, Genesis has seen an increase in website-driven patient acquisition, higher organic traffic and greater user engagement. Metrics show that the site’s new online appointment scheduling effectively meets patients’ needs.