Comprised of Providence Healthcare, St. Joseph’s Health Centre, and St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto is one of Canada’s largest Catholic healthcare networks. Known for their excellent and compassionate care, Unity services 6,100 births, 794,000 ambulatory visits, 175,000 emergency visits, and 57,000 surgical procedures every year.
Although the three hospitals function as a singular health network, they lacked a unified online presence. This resulted in a confusing user experience, disjointed navigation, and sites which did not reflect the common Unity brand.
To support the amalgamation process, Unity partnered with Sandbox to create a custom external website and intranet portal that represents the new Unity brand, goals, and objectives. The new Unity website will also supplant the existing PHC, SJHC, and SMH sites.
- Introduce a unified brand that advances Unity's position as a key contributor to the health care system
- Create an intranet portal for staff that will support departmental collaboration and communication
- Redevelop the website using the WordPress content management system to allow for an intuitive content management experience for web administrators
Solution
Sandbox supported Unity throughout the website development lifecycle by providing discovery and research activities to supplement work already done by Unity, and then making recommendations for features, flow, information architecture, and page structure. A significant amount of time was spent on the IA and dramatically reducing page count, reviewing content, and establishing a migration strategy which was supplemented by supporting tools provided by Sandbox. Wireframes were used to support creative design efforts which reflected the corporate brand and the culture of Unity. The site was built in the WordPress content management system, and offers several patient-centric features including wayfinding tools, an easy-to-use location and program/services lookup solution, and a concierge tool which offers an alternative means of accessing content at the site from the primary navigation. The site includes a comprehensive search feature, integrates with social media, allows for quick public feedback, and is AODA compliant.
Outcome
The new Unity Health website streamlines the user experience, especially for patients and their families, by amalgamating the organization’s three sites into one unified website. This has allowed the organization to reinforce the Unity brand across all hospitals and reduces the publishing of redundant information across sites.
With plenty of experience in the healthcare sector, Sandbox developed digital solutions to ensure the new Unity Health Toronto website was built with a responsive design and user-centric focus.
> Website Design & Development
Sandbox Software has built dozens of software solutions to deliver custom functionality in a system that is not available in a commercial or off-the-shelf solution.
> Software Development
WordPress is the most popular and our preferred choice of open source CMS. By leveraging this CMS, staff are able to easily create and manage pages on the website. Through WordPress, our developers can also code custom features for your desired functionality that isn't available through a third-party tool or plugin.
> WordPress Development