Analysis of hospital website contents for promoting medical tourism among accredited and non-Accredited hospitals

Swathi K.S. Swathi K.S.; P. Supriya; Gopalkrishna Barkur; Somu G. Somu G.; Niranjana Sampathila

doi:10.53730/ijhs.v6nS7.11842

Authors

Swathi K.S. Manipal Institute of Management, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India. 576104
P. Supriya Manipal Institute of Management, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India. 576104
Gopalkrishna Barkur Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India. 576104
Somu G. Kasturba Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India. 576104
Niranjana Sampathila Department of Biomedical Engineering, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India. 576104

Keywords:

Medical tourism, Website analysis, Hospital websites, Hospital accreditation, Health care services, Health tourism

Abstract

Hospital websites act as significant marketing channels for promoting and showing medical destinations, amenities, medical personnel, and services. It is believed that the accreditation status of hospitals assures the provision of quality care and adherence to high standards of patient safety practices. Hence, a cross-sectional analysis of hospital websites is performed to examine the association between the status of accreditation and hospital website content in promoting medical tourism. The contents of 111 hospitals’ websites were coded using an ‘ad-hoc Codebook’ that has five categories of website information summing to a total of 38 items and the total evaluation scores were calculated for each hospital. The findings show a significant difference in the 3 groups of hospitals. JCI accredited hospitals displayed most of the information on their websites significantly, followed by NABH accredited hospitals. Minimum information such as accommodation/travel arrangements and photos of the facilities were predominantly displayed on the websites of non-accredited hospitals. A high percentage of hospitals need improvement in the areas of admission and medical services follow-up through phone calls, email, or real-time chats.

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