Assessing the Quality of Hospitals’ Websites in Khorasan Razavi Province

Background and Objectives: The aim of the present study was to demonstrate a clear vision of the quality status of Khorasan Razavi hospitals’ websites in four dimensions of content, performance, management and using the website. Material and Methods: This was a survey study. The sample size consisted of 49 hospital websites of Khorasan Razavi province. A check list including 21 components and four criteria (content, performance, management and how to use the website) was used as the assessing instrument. Its validity and reliability have been proved through previous studies. Also, the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: The findings showed that only 59% of the hospitals in Khorasan Razavi had active websites. The overall status of the websites showed the following: too weak (51%), moderate (26.5%) and weak (16.3%), respectively. Regarding the content, performance, management and using the website and design criteria, the findings showed that 40.8% of the websites had an unfavorable condition. Of the 16 high quality websites selected, only three websites including Sina Hospital in Mashhad, Javdoll-Aemeh in Mashhad and Razavi were in good condition; meanwhile the others were in poor condition. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that most websites do not consider minimal medical standards and also, they could not establish good relationships with their audiences. In fact, in Iran, considering the quality and performance of websites has not been a priority for improving service quality in hospitals. The findings of this study can be effective in the identification and development of hospital websites quality criteria in terms of design, content, performance and management and how to use websites.