Montefiore Medical Center
Drupal, Acquia Cloud Platform
to launch COVID-SAFE Care microsite
The Client
As the academic medical center and University Hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center is nationally recognized for clinical excellence — breaking new ground in research, training the next generation of healthcare leaders, and delivering science-driven, patient-centered care. Montefiore is ranked among the top hospitals nationally and regionally by U.S. News & World Report.
The Situation
Following the peak of New York State’s initial COVID-19 outbreak, patients were hesitant to return to hospitals and doctors’ offices for their non-COVID needs. The Bronx’s Montefiore Health System, which served one the hardest-hit areas in New York City, saw that existing and prospective patients were delaying the care and treatment they needed due to fears of COVID-19 and a lack of awareness on patient-return criteria. With patients putting their healthcare on hold, Montefiore knew other health crises could result. Montefiore endeavored to create a new microsite to reassure patients of the steps the health system was taking to ensure patient safety and encourage patients to return for the care they required.
The Challenge
As a response to the pandemic, Montefiore had put into place rigorous COVID safety protocols designed to protect the health of their patients and staff, including thorough cleaning measures and symptom screenings. It had also expanded its telemedicine services as an alternative to some in-person visits. But patient awareness of these efforts was low. Montefiore realized that it needed to communicate to patients what was being done to protect their health and safety so they would feel supported in their return.
The Solution
With just over one month to launch, a speedy end-to-end solution was needed to launch the COVID-SAFE Care microsite. Partner Mediacurrent led the charge, deploying its Rain Install Profile and Rain Admin Theme to help speed Drupal setup and launch as fast as possible, empowering Montefiore’s site editors to manage digital content and experiences for current and future patients. The site’s component-based approach made use of reusable components that ensure a consistent appearance and functionality across the entire website.
The microsite’s back end uses a headless Drupal website hosted on Acquia to store the content architecture and data. The flexibility of having a decoupled Drupal back end allowed the front-end team to iterate on their designs without much conflict with the back end. And the front end was built using Gatsby, a static site generator, to maximize UI flexibility and performance on the new microsite.
The Results
Montefiore’s COVID-SAFE Care microsite was launched in five weeks and served as a much-needed resource for its patients. The microsite clearly communicated the measures Montefiore was taking to ensure the health and safety of its patients and staff, and encouraged patients to not put their healthcare on hold. Drupal 8 and Gatsby formed an open source decoupled platform with the performance, scalability and security needed to support the future evolution of the site.