Greystone.Net, Web Site Health Content Management. Greystone.Net, 3340 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 610, Atlanta, GA 30326; 404.848.0290; fax, 404.848.0262; info@greystone.net; http://www .greystone.net/; contact for pricing.
Building partnerships is an essential component of the health care environment, as professionals strive to improve quality and outcomes. With this in mind, a group of health care professionals and health information providers formed a group to share ideas and resources. These key individuals are involved with patient and family education throughout Methodist Health System in Omaha, Nebraska. For the past ten years, the Patient, Family and Community Education Committee has combined their expertise to improve the quality of education and health information provided to their clients through a variety of initiatives.
Based on a solid evaluation process and a pilot project with Clinical Reference System, the group worked with the information technology and marketing departments in evaluating and selecting a health content provider for the health system's Website. The group used a decision grid to assist in comparing features of five health content providers. The group's measurement criteria included:
* General: cost, liability, branding, certifications
* Content: sources of information, frequency of reviews, reading level, languages (can a user easily toggle to Spanish?), animations and pictures, number of topics, wellness focus, clinical testing and procedures, medication information, searchable news articles or archives, nutrition and recipes, health calculators, online newsletters, email capability, film clips, resources or associations, level of integration, and search functionality
* Format: look and feel-font, ease of printing, different logos, number of steps to health and wellness, links allowed
* Other: use of content for a physician expert to answer questions; ability to drop in quotes, incorporate newsletters and email content, make photocopies for health fairs, etc., and use the content on physician Websites; use of national reference sites; other health systems using the vendor
Greystone.Net was selected as successfully meeting the greatest number of criteria. The redesigned Website <http://www.bestcare.org> was brought online in 2005. Greystone.Net was established in 1996 to provide Internet and Web solutions and services for health care organizations. Their clients include hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers, and national health plans. Greystone.Net offers a wide selection of clinical health topics for provider Websites. Greystone's content is consumer-oriented; comprehensive, covering hundreds of medical conditions and thousands of medical topics; easily modifiable; and able to be fully customized to include local links, services, and physicians. Content is available in the following formats:
* adult health library in English: http://greystone.net/hc-adultindex.html
* pediatric health library in English: http://greystone.net/hc-peds-index .html
* adult and pediatric health library in Spanish: http://greystone.net/ hc_sp_index.html
* centers of excellence: http:// greystone.net/hc_cent_index.html
* electronic health newsletters in seven clinical areas: http://greystone .net/hc_enews_index.html
* breaking health news feeds: http://greystone.net/hc-bnewstopics.html
Adult health products
The clinical content modules typically include:
* home page that introduces the topic
* site map of entire contents of the health topic module
* topic definition or description
* subtopic definitions or descripons
* statistics and facts
* diagnostic tests and procedures
* symptoms
* treatments (a list and explanation of possible treatments, however, this explanation does not endorse or recommend one treatment over another)
* prevention protocols
* glossary of topic terminology or key word list
* online resource page linking to appropriate outside Websites
* medical illustrations with explanations, when appropriate
* photographs relevant to topic throughout entire site
Breaking news
Greystone.Net monitors the national health care news featured on major news networks and released in the latest medical journals, at medical conferences, at health symposiums, and so on. Greystone.Net provides a timely Web-ready summary of a top story that can be featured on a home page each week. This information is taken from the original source of the research or announcement.
A news summary has appropriate links to background information on the topic or disease and relevant outside information including, but not limited to, the Website of the sponsoring (original) research or development organization. This content can be edited as necessary.
Greytsone.Net recommends that users add the information or links that tie the national news information to local relevant services and products.
Centers of excellence
According to the Greystone.Net Website, 'Greystone.Net has created Web-ready Centers of Excellence. These Centers may support a hospital's existing Center or they allow for the creation of a Virtual' Center of Excellence ... one that exists through the collection and presentation of physician, service and health information around a clinical area.' Centers include:
*?heart center
* pregnancy, birth, and baby cener
* women's center
* cancer center
* orthopaedic center
A center of excellence allows an organization:
* to showcase their services and physician in a particular medical area
* to create an administrative unit for:
* managing related resources
* providing brand support through marketing and positioning
* contracting with insurers and employers
* recruiting staff
* coordinating patient care
* improving customer satisfaction
* tracking and reporting return on investment
* to compete for and fulfill research grants and clinical trials
The Center of Excellence Website can:
* more effectively present the full scope of services and physicians that constitute the center
* create patient and family relationships: customized diagnosisspecific electronic newsletters, appointment reminders, and other care management functions can establish and reinforce a relationship between the center and the patient or family; often this would impractical without the use of the Internet and secure email
* in a cost effective manner, provide current news and information on important developments, including:
* new physicians
* new ambulatory (outreach) offices and services
* new diagnostic and treatment procedures that are available through the center
* even national health news stories and physicians' agreement or disagreement with their findings
Advantages
Greystone.Net allows health systems to brand the content so it looks like it belongs to the health system. As noted on Greystone.Net's Website, 'the license allows health systems to edit or modify the content-to meet specific philosophies of care, to highlight areas of expertise and advanced technologies, and to facilitate the relationship between the patient and the health system's medical staff.' Some vendors require their logo to appear on every Web page. There is no indication that the content on www.bestcare.org is from GreystoneNet.
Content can be purchased with a perpetual license or leased for a specific period of time. The content can be hosted locally or on a Greystone.Net server, and a license for an optional content management tool can be leased. GreystoneNet has excellent tools, has Americans with Disabilities Act approval, and is section 508 disability qualified.
Deficiencies and disadvantages
Disadvantages were also considered in the group's deliberations. The vendor does not have its own medication database. However, Greystone recommends that health systems link to MedlinePlus for drug information. This was acceptable for the group's requirements.
Conclusion
Greystone.Net compared very favorably to the other four vendors that were examined. The review group came to a unanimous decision about which provider best matched its requirements and continues to be confident in that decision.
[Author Affiliation]
Angela Arner, BA, MLA CHLS
Certification
Angela.Arner@methodistcollege.edu
Coordinator, Consumer Health
Library Services
John Moritz Library
Nebraska Methodist College-The Josie Harper Campus
Omaha, Nebraska
Mary Wolcott-Breci, MSN, RN
mary.wolcott-breci@nmhs.org
Patient Education Department
Nebraska Methodist Hospital
Omaha, Nebraska
