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Long Term Care

STORY OF THE WEEK

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How To Best Use Your Hospice Web Site

By Tasha Beauchamp, MS

Many hospices now have a company Web site that functions primarily as an online brochure. It does a great job of telling people about the service, but it may not be making use of the Internet’s unique strengths.

With search engine optimization (to increase your Google ranking), your Web site may help draw hospice seekers to you, as opposed to your competitors. But all of this presumes that the viewer is actively looking for a hospice. As we all know, when people are ready for hospice, it’s usually much later than when they needed it. To truly optimize the advantages of the Internet, you want your Web site to engage people and bring them to you earlier in the process.

Boomer Daughters and Sons Rely Upon the Internet

According to a Pew Internet and American Life study, 39 percent of all Internet users report going online in the last two years to help someone with a major illness. Most commonly, it is the Boomer’s, adult children (ages 50-64) who are logging on to seek information for their ailing parents. Twenty-six percent of these family caregivers say the Internet played a crucial role during the illness.

In fact, a nationwide poll conducted by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving revealed that the Internet was cited as the number one source for caregiving information, outranking even doctors.

Moreover, one-third of family caregivers say the Internet helped them find professional or expert services. Nearly two thirds (65 percent) of persons 50-64 report using the World Wide Web in the last year. Clearly, the Internet is an excellent medium for reaching Boomers looking for help with mom or dad.

Use Your Web Site To Build Relationships

To move your Web site beyond the level of an online brochure, you want to think of it as a new medium for building relationships. As with any relationship, the more contact you have, the stronger the bond.

Translated into the context of the Internet, the more times visitors return to your Web site, the stronger their connection to you. (One sign of a successful Web site is that it inspires visitors to bookmark it and return again in the future.)

Provide a Reason To Come to (and Bookmark!) Your Site

While an online brochure will be of interest to those who know they are seeking your services, it is not a resource people will typically bookmark. To achieve that level of Web productivity, you need to offer practical tools and information your viewers will find useful.

Since your viewers are adult daughters and sons, you need to become a resource for caregiving information. To literally "meet them where they are" in cyberspace, consider the following for your Web site:

Educational articles: Beyond curative approaches, family caregivers are concerned about the daily realities: pain management, eating and nutrition, coping with grief and hopelessness, handling financialand legal matters. While we know that signing up for hospice would give them support for these concerns, many caregivers are "pre-hospice" in their readiness. But, you can provide them with written materials online. They will begin to see you as the expert in serious illness. They will bookmark your site and become bonded with your organization. With exposure to you and your helpfulness, you increase the likelihood they will turn to you as a resource for services when they are ready. (They may also recognize their readiness earlier if your articles emphasize quality of life and the benefits of the palliative approach.)
Online directory of community programs: Family caregivers know they need help, but they don’t know where to turn. A list of the eldercare support services in your area will not only help them in meeting their loved one’s needs, but it will likely be a page that they bookmark for future referral. (This is especially true for the 15 percent of family members who live an hour or more away from their ailing relative.)
Links to other educational resources. The Internet is full of good information — and information that is not so good. It can be too much for an already-overwhelmed caregiver to process. As health professionals, you are better equipped to quickly sort the wheat from the chaff. Set up a page with links to Web sites you believe offer credible information and support. Your reference page will serve as a useful resource, easing family member concerns and saving them time in the search process.
Practical, interactive tools. There are several innovative online services that offer practical support for caregiving families.

CarePages.com, for instance, provides the ability for people who know very little about the Internet to create a private blog (a Web-log or diary) concerning their loved one’s health or progress. The caregiver creates a CarePage and then invites friends and family to join and get the latest update, see pictures and post messages of support and encouragement. In addition, CarePages.com is a community where family caregivers can find others in similar situations and feel comfortable expressing their best wishes and encouraging messages at any time.

Lotsahelpinghands.com is another online service which offers the ability to create a free family account. This useful tool helps caregivers easily request and schedule assistance from willing friends and relatives for tasks such as driving mom to the doctor, or bringing a meal on Wednesday. People who say, "Let me know how I can help" are added to a private e-mail list. Then, when a caregiver needs help, he or she sends a request to the list. Persons interested in helping can go to the family’s private calendar and click on the task. The caregiver is sent an e-mail confirmation that the tasks will be handled, and the helper will receive a reminder one week, and then again one day before the activity. With this system, caregivers avoid numerous phone calls, and the constant embarrassment of having to ask for help. Lotsahelpinghands.com is also expanding to include blog-like features and an online support community.

Both of these interactive tools are available for free to users. However, hospices can pay to co-brand the site. They receive a unique Web address (e.g., yourhospice.lotsahelpinghands.com) where caregivers and participating family and friends will see the hospice logo on each page and have access to an "About Us" write up with a link to the hospice’s corporate Web site.

Make It Easy to Start a Relationship With You

Beyond providing reference materials, you can harness the interactivity of the Web to promotecommunication.

An "Ask the Expert" feature. A surprising number of caregivers turn to the Web during the "worry hours," between 10:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m. Consistent with the "meet them where they are" philosophy, you can facilitate communication by providing an "Ask the Expert" e-mail form on your Web site. With an online format available 24/7, family members can express concerns and initiate contact while the issue is top in their mind. They do not expect, or necessarily need an immediate response; you can let them know the likely turnaround time. With an "Ask the Expert" feature, you have removed the barrier of having to pick up the phone or wait until your staff are in the office. The caregiver gets the instant gratification of having started the ball rolling and, you will be positively associated with that immediate sense of relief. When your staff comes in the next business day, they can respond, by e-mail or telephone, and begin the relationship-building process much as they would if they had received a call on their voice mail.
An online referral form. While many hospices have provided forms for doctors to initiate a referral online — excellent use of the Internet! — don’t forget the family caregiver. Consider taking a cue from the pharmaceutical companies. They realized that direct-to-consumer promotion was more productive than marketing to physicians. Patients who request a prescription are more likely to receive it and fill it.

Similarly, you can provide a simple form that family members can complete, requesting that you contact them, or the patient, to discuss whether hospice is appropriate for their situation. (Be sure you take steps to secure online privacy and meet HIPAA regulations.)

One of the bigger barriers to hospice referral is physician reticence to bring up the subject. If you have spoken with the patient/family, however, and the family brings it up, the doctor is much more likely to order hospice care.

Leverage Your Web Site with Physicians and the Press

Physicians are busy professionals. They want the best for their patients, but they often do not have the time to create educational materials, research local support programs or make a list of online resources.

Once you have a Web site with useful content—not just an advertisement for your services — you can market it to physicians. Provide them with flyers they can hand out that list the topics covered and include the Web address.

You can even promote your content-rich Web site to the press. They are always looking for additional resources to mention in a sidebar. Let them position you as the local experts. With educational and community referral information online, they will be more inclined to note your Web site beside articles on caregiving, pain management, grief, etc.

About the Author: Tasha Beauchamp, MS, is the Web master of www.seriousillness.org, research scientist and hospice volunteer. For more on her accomplishments and professional and educational background, visit http://www.letscollaborate.us/aboutus.html. She can be reached at http://tasha@seriousillness.org or at (541) 915-9907. Update the next two lines if story source is Largo; if not Largo, hide the next two lines

Get the news you need on hospice when you sign up for a FREE 30-day trial subscription to hospice letter. To sign up today, click here.

Source: hospice letter, September 2007

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IMPORTANT NOTICE: This information is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information on the business of healthcare. It is distributed with the understanding that Healthcare Intelligence Network is not engaged in rendering legal advice. If legal advice is required, the services of a competent professional should be retained.