Redesigned website of Chicago’s oldest hospital
centered on its physicians

About Client

John Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County (formerly known as Cook County Hospital of Chicago) is one of the oldest public hospitals in the nation, dating back to the early 19th century. Our client was the hospital’s Department of Anesthesiology.

Challenge

We needed to design a website that serves the needs of 80 medical practitioners consisting of faculty, fellows, nurses, and 4 levels of residents at the hospital.

In our field studies we observed how physicians would constantly take off from their work from all over the hospital, rushing to the multi-purpose room to pencil-in a timeslot on a sheet of when then could offer their coverage. They would also come to this room to discuss issues, but only a few can come at a time due to work time constraints.

Methods

• We applied the methods of field studies and website redesign.
• We innovated a secure intranet section where physicians could access shared calendars, interact on a discussion forum, and receive secured HIPPA compliant schedule files.
• We ensured that the website was Internet Explorer 6 compatible.
• In our action shot photography, we gave special attention to high technology shots to place on the homepage.
• We deactivated some mechanisms in the content management system that would down sample resolution quality of the photography to compensate for the hospital’s computer graphics limitations.

Results

• We synthesized the insights of our findings from our field studies to produce the final 61 page website design. Our solutions made the department’s website more attractive, secure (HIPPA compliant), useful, and functional.
• Physicians were more productive and at ease because they could coordinate their scheduling through the online shared calendar without taking time off from work to rush to the multi-purpose room to commit their work time slots.
• Physicians’ discussions were more meaningful because more of them could participate in the online discussion forum at their own time of convenience online as opposed to only a few being able to reach the multi-purpose room at a time.