Hospital-wide Website Content Audit

Challenge

The hospital’s external website has not gone undergone a content audit since its launch in 2018. Many pages were outdated and the Communications team frequently received inquiries about incorrect information.

Our goal was to partner with departments to review and update their pages while establishing a process so the website stays maintained.

Sector

Healthcare

My Role

Project Lead, Web Strategy, Communications

Timeline

6 months

Gathering Insights

Background

Michael Garron Hospital's external website, tehn.ca, provides important information to several audiences including patients, families, community members , learners and staff. Many pages were outdated as new developments arose and content is updated on a case-by-case basis.

My role as the project lead was to formalize a process for the Communications team to work with hospital staff to review and update content.

Key roles defined for this project:‍

Director: Department leader who is responsible for identifying a Page Lead for the Comms team to work with. Provides final sign-off on content changes.
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Page Lead: Department staff member who serves ass the primary owner of assigned webpages. Reviews content and makes suggested edits.
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Comms Lead: Member of the Comms team who will work with the Page Lead to refine suggested edits and ensure style, tone and accessibility standards. Implements the approved changes on the webstie.

Brainstorm map of processes

Site Crawl

I used Screaming Frog to get an accurate page count and clearer picture of the site structure. This gave me a workload estimate of each department and allowed me to prioritize high-volume areas.

The crawl also revealed SEO and accessibility issues which I incorporated into the practical training for the Comms team to apply during updates.

TEAM MOBILIZATION

Architecture Map

From the crawl, I grouped pages by department and built an Architecture Map. I then assigned a Comms Lead to each department based on existing relationships, subject familiarity and team capacity or timelines.

The map allowed me to keep track of the overall progress of the project and identify opportunities to reallocate resources if a colleague needed more support.

Mapping out user role permissions and definitions.

Webpage Templates

I developed a guiding document to help Comms Leads and Page Leads collaborate more smoothly. It provides a structure process for submitting and refining edits to reduce friction and bottlenecks in communication. It also contained best practices and guidelines for writing content that is clear and accessible to our audiences.

Click here to view Webpage Template.

Drupal Training

I led a training session for the Comms team as a refresher on web best practices to use when making Drupal updates. I emphasized accessibility and using correct header tags, descriptive alt text and complete metadata.

Click here to view Drupal Best Practices document.

process

Outreach

Comms Leads emailed their assigned Directors to kick off the audit and request their collaboration. Given their busy schedules, I developed key messaging to emphasize the importance of this audit:

The site hasn’t had a formal review since 2018. Outdated or incorrect information risks patient safety and the hospital's credibility.
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‍You only need to identify a Page Lead and provide final sign-off. The Comms team will handle execution.
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‍This audit supports Accreditation preparation. The updates will be required regardless.
*Accreditation is an outside review every four years that confirms a hospital meets recognized standards for safe, quality patient care.

Content Review

Once Comms Leads connected with their Page Leads, work began to update page content using the webpage templates. Comms Leads reviewed all suggested edits to ensure it aligned with our writing style guide for grammar, tone and plain language.

During this working period, I played an advisory role when the team had any questions regarding the the entire process. We held bi-weekly check-ins as a group to ensure everyone had adequate support and also share insights and learnings.

Implementing Updates

After final approval from the Page Lead and Director, Comms Leads proceeded to update the live page in Drupal. When all pages within a department were completed, a closing email was sent to the Directors and Page Leads confirming that their audit work is finished.

The Comms team worked directly in Drupal to make their changes referring the best practices document for support. I remained responsible for complex updates to relieve load off the team, such directories and custom integrations.

Conclusion

Results and Takeaways

The six-month audit was completed without major delays or interruptions. The processes and templates made it easy for the Comms team to collaborate with departments, speeding up the review process. Directors and managers also appreciated our proactive approach and the clear directions that made their work easier.

Over six months, we updated 90% of the pages in scope, improving content accuracy on the external website for patients and the community. The remaining 10% were either paused due to department timelines or archived because they were no longer needed. We also saw a 40% drop in inquiries about incorrect information on the site.

What i learned:

Looking back, I should have staggered the project in phases to account for competing timelines and priorities. Our three-month plan became six due to vacations, slow response times and department capacity. Next time, I’d schedule the audit separately by department when each team has the most capacity.

Not all departments had the same number of pages and not all pages required the same level of effort to review and update. Having the bi-weekly check-ins helped keep the project on track and allowed me to redistribute workload when specific areas required more support.

Sustainability

Analytics Dashboard

Pulling from Google Analytics, I built a Looker Studio dashboard template that can be repurposed for different departments so Page Leads can see how their pages are performing. This helps them prioritize content and report outcomes to leadership. It also reinforces content governance.

Next Steps

Going forward, the Comms team will conduct a full content audit every two years, with more frequent reviews on high-traffic areas like patient registration and clinics. The Webpage Templates have also been incorporated into the Corporate Communications toolkit to streamline future content updates.

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