Evaluation of the website of public hospitals in Isfahan with the WebMedQual approach in 2018

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Hospital websites are one of the most important communication and information distribution tools in hospitals. Evaluation of hospital websites based on different aspects including design, content, accessibility, and other related criteria can determine hospitals' situation in the use of novel information technologies. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate public hospital websites of Isfahan using WebMedQual approach. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study is an applied study carried out using a survey method which evaluated the public hospital websites of Isfahan using WebMedQual scale in the year 2015. Validity and reliability of the scale was confirmed. This scale includes 8 main components, 8 subcomponents, 95 items, and 3 supplementary questions. The study population included 17 public hospital websites in the city of Isfahan. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22 software. RESULTS: Based on the general score of WebMedQual scale, the websites of Noor and Ali Asghar hospitals with 42.21% had the highest and the website of Ibn Sina hospital with 22.81% had the lowest score. Findings also showed that among eight factors used in this scale, design with 59.96% and accessibility with 44.70% had the highest average scores. On the other hand, source credibility, user support, and privacy have the lowest average scores with averages of 22.87%, 21.56%, and 1.63%, respectively. The total average score of all factors was 31.94%. CONCLUSION: Scores showed that based on WebMedQual, public hospital websites in Isfahan have low quality. Therefore, it is necessary to review and make corrections regarding privacy and confidentiality guidelines, update website information, website content (clinical content and other contents) and website writers, and provide forums and other design-related factors for these websites.