MyLifeStages.org
[Case Study] There’s a lot to like about Sutter Health System’s interactive website for women. From a consumer perspective, MyLifeStages.org is a robust and highly useful health and wellness resource for residents of the Sacramento, CA community and Northern California. In fact, it’s been repeatedly recognized as one of the nation’s best consumer health websites.
What’s more, from a healthcare marketing and community relations perspective, MyLifeStages.org represents a real-world example for hospital and healthcare executives in the benefits of Internet Marketing.
Sutter’s Consumer Products & Marketing Director Karin Miklos, tells us that the concept for the MyLifeStages.org program was developed in 2007, created in 2008, and launched in 2009. “The premise,” Karin explains, “was to create an online location for women to engage with local healthcare experts and other women to get reliable health and wellness information.” And it’s women who make the majority of household healthcare decisions for their primary and extended families.
The program is free, but membership enrollment allows for personalized (and confidential) custom features. It’s important to note that the site presents localized content and information based on the member’s location…one of 800-plus zip codes in the Sutter service area.
MyLifeStages.org features for the public
We recommend that you spend a few minutes exploring the wide and deep site as a consumer (public, patient, prospective patient) might. In its four-plus years of existence, the well organized and easy to navigate website provides range of health and wellness resources, primarily for women.
Features include content suites for topics and issues relevant to different life stages (hence the name), as well as “life tools” such as interactive to-do lists, individual and family (secure) health records, and expert information. Many of these real-life tools are designed to inspire action and continuing use, such as a health risk assessment, BMI calculators and health trackers. Significantly, MyLifeStages is one of the few places online where local, practicing physicians answer questions, blog and talk about the topics that matter most to visitors.
Healthcare Marketing benefits…and what others can learn…
The Sutter Health website is an award-winning case example for other hospital and healthcare marketing professionals. In addition to the consumer online take-aways, some of the marketing benefits include:
Measures of results for MyLifeStages
Karin Miklos explains, “With several years of experience behind us, we now have a great many insights into this segment. We track about 35,000 visits per month, with most driven by SEO and return visitors. The program serves about 30,000 members, of which about 80 percent are commercially insured folks, and 60 percent are patients. Another 40 percent are prospects using the online platform for ongoing conversations about health-related topics.”
What’s more, MyLifeStages has been recognized for four consecutive years as “Best Overall Internet Site” among the eHealthcare Leadership Awards. Most recently it was honored again this month with Gold Awards in Overall Internet Site (Consumer), and Best Integrated Campaign (Love Your Body Challenge).
Public acceptance and industry awards, however, don’t happen with static programs. “We evolve this site monthly,” Karin tells us, “with timely new content each week from blogs and ATE, as well as monthly updates based on consumer topics and new incentive content.”
Plus, Sutter Health has additional web priorities on deck for development, including attention to the growing mobile sector, social media, targeted content enhancements, and CRM features that support the patient experience and satisfaction.
Sutter Health’s MyLifeStages.org is a rich case study with valuable online and Internet healthcare marketing lessons.
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