Abstract:

Today, the ease of access to the internet and the spread of the internet access tools by cheaping has led to create well-designed, living and continuously developing websites that can provide their corporate identities. Web sites have become the appearance of the institutions. The first impressions of visiting users about the organization and the products and services offered by the organization are directly related to the quality that the websites can provide. As the internet is spreading, increasing information pollution has become a major problem, especially for those seeking services in the health sector. At this point, the most important means for patients to get accurate, reliable and up-to-date information from the health institutions are the hospital websites. It is critical that the hospital websites are designed in a user-friendly, easily accessible and understandable way, in an interactive structure and that patients can provide the information they need up to date. The aim of this study is to study the corporate websites of universities, public and private hospitals in Turkey through criteria determined in terms of availability, access quality, performance, up-to-date, technical infrastructure and social dimension. The example of the study is a total of 252 hospital websites covered by the selection of the Marmara, Inner Anadolu, Egean, Mediterranean, Southeast Anadolu, Black Sea and Eastern Anadolu regions of Turkey. Hospital websites were analyzed through a software using search engine optimization algorithms, based on 22 criteria below 6 main dimensions. The research results show that although special hospitals websites provide more satisfying results, hospitals websites in Turkey generally need significant improvements in terms of up-to-date, social dimension, visibility and content quality.

Abstract:

Today, the ease of access to the internet and the cheaper and widespread use of internet access tools have led businesses to establish well-designed, living and constantly developing websites where they can present their corporate identity. Web sites have become the visible face of institutions. The first impressions of the visiting users about the institution and about the products and services offered by the institution are directly related to the quality of the websites. Information pollution, which increases as the Internet becomes widespread, has become a major problem especially for those who demand service in the health sector. At this point, the most important tool by which patients can get accurate, reliable and up-to-date information for health institutions is hospital websites. It is critical that hospital websites are designed in a user-friendly, easily accessible and understandable manner, have an interactive structure, and provide up-to-date information that patients need.The aim of this study is to examine the usability, access quality, performance, up-to-dateness, technical infrastructure and social dimension of government and private hospital websites in Turkey. The sample of the study includes 252 hospital websites of Turkey's Marmara, Central Anatolia, Aegean, Mediterranean, Southeast Anatolia, the Black Sea and Eastern Anatolia regions. Hospital websites were analyzed over 22 criteria under 6 main dimensions, using a software that uses search engine optimization algorithms. Despite getting more satisfactory research results for especially private hospital websites, results present that hospital websites in Turkey need significant improvement on the timeliness, social dimension, visuality and content quality.

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