Building Reputed Brands Through Online Content Strategies: A Quantitative Analysis of Australian Hospitals’ Websites

Abstract

Hospitals use their websites to reinforce their relationships with stakeholders and build the brand collectively; however, they face challenges such as patients’ new needs or strict legal frameworks. This paper analyzes how Australia’s best hospitals manage their websites to implement content strategies that help them build their brands collectively with stakeholders. We conducted a literature review about smart hospitals, their corporate communication initiatives, and their online content strategies. Then, we identified 40 brand indicators to analyze how Australia’s best hospitals used their websites to interact with healthcare professionals, patients, media companies, and shareholders. We proved that most hospitals had sections for these targets (healthcare professionals -72.06%-, patients -85.51%-, media companies -98.53%, shareholders 100%-); however, they only respected, on average, 14.06 brand indicators. We concluded that Australian hospitals should follow a more emotional communication approach, make their brands more present on their website, and increase their collaborations with media companies.

1. Introduction

Hospitals implement corporate communication initiatives to interact with their primary stakeholders and build their brand collectively with them. These organizations resort to media relations, events, marketing activities, and branding campaigns to reinforce their relationships with employees, patients, media companies, shareholders, public authorities, policymakers, and suppliers. However, hospitals face different challenges that make it difficult to achieve this goal: patients’ new emotional and cultural needs, media companies’ requirements regarding content (format, language), employees’ new demands, and stricter legal frameworks implemented by public authorities. These barriers force these organizations to accelerate innovation processes and implement new communication strategies.

This paper analyzes how Australia’s best hospitals use their websites to implement content strategies that reinforce their relationships with stakeholders and allow them to build their brands collectively. In other words, this paper aims to answer the following research question: what are the leading corporate content strategies Australian hospitals implement on their websites to build their brands collectively with stakeholders? To do that, we conducted a literature review about smart hospitals (artificial intelligence, big data, and health 4.0), their corporate communication initiatives (internal structure, interpersonal communication, and external campaigns), and their online content strategies (websites, social media, and online reputation). Then, we defined 40 brand indicators to quantitatively analyze how Australia’s best hospitals used their websites to implement content strategies and improve their relationships with four stakeholders: healthcare professionals, patients, media companies, and shareholders. Finally, we discussed our main quantitative results and proposed three main conclusions to help hospitals make their online content strategies more dynamic and, in this way, build more reputed brands.

2. Smart Hospitals’ Online Content Strategies

2.1. Smart Hospitals

Artificial intelligence in healthcare refers to software and technological tools that hospitals use to analyze medical data, predict diseases, improve patients’ medical outcomes, and reduce healthcare costs [1]. This technology has drastically modified the relationships between patients and healthcare professionals: now, these relationships are directly connected to information and technology [2]. Thanks to artificial intelligence, hospitals improve the quality of clinical care, including diagnosis, treatments, prognosis, and patients’ participation in the hospital system [3]. For example, in medical imaging, the application of computer vision techniques, traditional machine learning, and deep neural networks has achieved remarkable success [4]. Furthermore, this technology optimizes hospitals’ administrative processes by implementing new practices, such as online appointments or data recording for diagnosis [5]. Despite these advantages, some patients and healthcare professionals are concerned about hackers or governments violating individual privacy for unrightful use, criminal activities, or political surveillance [6]. So, hospitals must implement ethical and legal frameworks that protect patients’ and healthcare professionals’ rights in the new technological environment [7].

In healthcare, big data are based on acquiring large amounts of information from multiple sources, which are combined and mined using powerful data analytics tools: this analysis allows hospitals to extract features and valuable insights about patients [8]. Big data provide tremendous benefits for hospitals, such as tracking persons’ trajectories in space and time [9], identifying trends to improve patients’ medical treatments [10], and promoting health equity by advancing research projects beneficial for society [11]. However, implementing big data also represents two main challenges for hospitals. First, these organizations must pay attention to data privacy protection policies; otherwise, some external corporations could use patients’ information for illegal activities [12]. Second, many healthcare professionals do not have big data skills, making it difficult for hospitals to integrate this technology into current medical protocols [13]. For these reasons, hospitals need to professionalize their initiatives in big data and train their employees and patients: in technical aspects, medical practices, legal frameworks, and ethical standards [14].

The rapid development of artificial intelligence and big data has allowed hospitals to implement health 4.0 environments where they integrate and employ several innovative technologies: internet of health things, medical cyber–physical systems, health cloud, health fog, big data analytics, machine learning, blockchain, and smart algorithms [15]. In other words, hospitals use technology to transform their medical protocols, improve patients’ medical outcomes, and become digital institutions [16]. In this framework, many hospitals use mobile health to predict diseases and help patients improve their self-management of their health [17]. Smartphones have become sources of information and decision support for patients and healthcare professionals [18]. Besides smartphones, some hospitals use health wearable devices to collect real-time data about patients and monitor their treatments more efficiently [19]. Thanks to these wearables, hospitals improve disease prevention and early detection [20]. Finally, some hospitals also resort to telemedicine, especially in areas such as medical consultation, nursing, teleradiology, psychotherapy, and teleneurology [21].

2.2. Smart Hospitals’ Corporate Communication Initiatives

Health communication combines expertise from social sciences, physical sciences, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and public health to examine the influences of communication on healthcare and hospitals [22]. Most hospitals have implemented specialized health communication departments where experts in this area define and launch communication initiatives to improve patients’ experiences at the hospital [23]. To efficiently achieve this goal, health communication experts respect three principles: first, promoting a human communication approach where knowledge, emotional support, and empathy are more important than performance indicators and management tools [24]; second, integrating several disciplines to help healthcare professionals and patients from a medical, social, and emotional perspective [25]; and third, respecting ethical standards and protecting healthcare professionals’ and patients’ rights [26,27]. When health communication experts follow these three principles, they efficiently contribute to building a reputed brand [28].

The most crucial activity in hospitals is interpersonal communication between healthcare professionals and patients since it affects these organizations’ internal processes and medical outcomes [29]. When hospitals efficiently manage these communication relationships, they improve patients’ empowerment, which is essential for the hospital system [23]. For this reason, health communication experts should clearly define patient empowerment at each level of care production and train healthcare professionals in this area [30]. Moreover, these experts should lead a cultural change, allowing doctors and nurses to adjust their behaviors to patients’ emotional, social, cultural, and medical needs [31]. When healthcare professionals efficiently accept this adjustment, they establish patient-centered communication relationships [32] and implement collective decision-making processes in which patients become active players in the hospital system [33,34].

Building a reputed brand constitutes a priority for hospitals interested in establishing long-term relationships with stakeholders and reinforcing their strategic positioning in the health market [28]. To build their brand, hospitals must analyze their main stakeholder’s needs and expectations and use these insights to adjust the organization’s communication strategies [35]. In other words, hospitals must define communication initiatives based on sharing meaningful content that improves their stakeholders’ lives [36]. Furthermore, this content must reinforce the hospital’s social, cultural, and medical credibility [37]. Finally, this content must be consistent with the organization’s brand architecture; otherwise, stakeholders will not perceive the hospital as a genuine brand [38,39]. When hospitals follow this professional logic, they establish long-term relationships with stakeholders and efficiently reinforce their brand [40].

2.3. Smart Hospitals’ Online Content Strategies

Corporate websites have become an essential communication tool for hospitals since it allows them to make their relationships with stakeholders more dynamic [41]. This tool is critical to hospitals’ brand credibility, so they should be professional and not use it for marketing purposes, such as promoting medical treatments [42]. Instead, hospitals should use their websites to share content that reinforces their doctors’ and nurses’ scientific credibility and allows patients to improve their health literacy skills [43]. In other words, hospital should use their websites as a health education tool to fulfill their stakeholders’ emotional and social needs [44]. In addition, hospitals should integrate cultural elements into their online activities to efficiently establish long-term relationships with stakeholders [45]. When hospitals follow this professional logic, their websites become a potent tool that accelerates their branding efforts [46].

Besides websites, hospitals manage social media platforms as a corporate communication tool to share health information, reinforce their relationships with stakeholders, and promote their brands [47]. These platforms allow hospitals to share content in different formats—videos, images, and text—which contributes to making their relationships with stakeholders more dynamic [48]. However, these organizations must manage these platforms professionally, which means that they must implement an in-house social media unit employing experts in communication, public health, and technology who develop and share meaningful content for the organization and its stakeholders [28]. Health communication experts in this unit analyze the healthcare industry, find synergies between social trends, and define communication activities that satisfy the organization’s stakeholders’ needs [46,49]. Moreover, these experts should collaborate with healthcare professionals to use social media in health interventions [50]. When hospitals manage social media professionally, they become digital brands that influence stakeholders and lead social changes [51].

Corporate reputation refers to indivisible networks of associations that people deploy whenever they engage with the company [40]. In the hospital industry, reputation is directly related to technology: in other words, these organizations’ reputations are influenced by their presence on the Internet [52]. For this reason, hospitals need to professionally manage their websites and social media platforms, which involves integrating both platforms into their annual communication plans [46]. Moreover, they should follow a corporate communication approach instead of a journalistic one: in other words, they should use their websites and social media platforms to build brand experiences, not to share administrative information [28]. These brand experiences are essential to link the hospital with its stakeholders [42] and prove with facts that the organization is part of society and contributes to the common good [36]. When hospitals manage their online presence professionally, they associate their brands with the values of scientific credibility and authenticity, which improves their corporate reputation [53].

3. Methodology

Australian hospitals use online content strategies to reinforce their relationships with stakeholders and promote their brand reputation. In this framework, most of them use their websites as a corporate communication tool. However, hospitals face a primary challenge: implementing collective branding processes based on sharing online content meaningful for all stakeholders. To better understand how Australia’s best hospitals use their corporate websites to promote their brand through online content strategies, we resorted to the World’s Best Hospitals 2024, an annual report published by Newsweek and Statista that defines national and global rankings based on previous quantitative evaluations of 2400 hospitals from 30 countries. To evaluate each hospital, both organizations used four indicators with different weights on the hospital’s global grade: (a) recommendations from 85,000 healthcare professionals working in hospitals from 30 different countries (45% of the global grade); (b) patient surveys about their experiences in hospitals (16.25%); (c) hospital quality indicators on quality of care, safety, and doctor–patient ratios (35.25%); and (d) patient-reported outcomes measured by questionnaires that analyzed patients’ views about their quality of life (3.5%). A Global Board of Medical Experts from several countries (Germany, the United States, and France) validated all quantitative results about each hospital’s position in each ranking [54].

Thanks to these rankings, we identified the 70 best hospitals in Australia (see Appendix A). We analyzed each hospital’s website to better understand how they used this online tool to interact with four stakeholders: healthcare professionals, patients, media companies, and shareholders. We focused on them since they are the most critical stakeholders in hospitals’ collective branding processes. Doctors and nurses are essential in hospitals’ health education initiatives, which determine all stakeholders’ perceptions of the organization [55]. Patients are opinion leaders who share healthcare information with society, lead organizational changes, and determine hospitals’ public image [56]. Journalists contribute to hospitals’ branding activities by reinforcing doctors’ and nurses’ scientific credibility and public awareness [49]. Finally, shareholders make business decisions influencing hospitals’ branding strategies [57].

To understand how Australia’s best hospitals used their corporate websites for branding purposes, we conducted a quantitative analysis from 21 August to 10 September 2024. Based on our previous literature review, we identified 40 brand indicators that hospitals should respect to improve their online content strategies. Subsequently, we grouped these indicators into four categories, each referring to one of the four stakeholders we considered in this research: healthcare professionals, patients, media companies, and shareholders. Then, we matched each category with a particular section on the hospitals’ websites: (a) healthcare professionals (“for healthcare professionals” section); (b) patients (“patients” section); (c) media companies (“newsroom” section); and (d) shareholders (“about us” section)—see

Table 1. Brand indicators.

Healthcare Professionals For Healthcare Professionals	Patients Patients	Media Companies Newsroom	Shareholders About Us
1. Scientific publications	1. List of diseases and treatments	1. Research led by doctors	1. Company’s history
2. Innovation projects with external partners	2. Appointment checklist	2. Scientific events organized by the hospital	2. Brand architecture (mission, vision, values, identity, culture)
3. Continuing education programs	3. Preparing for surgery	3. Outreach projects with external partners	3. Governance and board of trustees
4. Graduate medical education programs	4. Planning to go home	4. Health education initiatives	4. Annual reports
5. Laboratories	5. Request medical records	5. Health library	5. Facts and figures
6. Clinical trials	6. Support groups	6. Hospital facts	6. Awards
7. Request medical records for patients	7. Patients’ experiences	7. Annual reports	7. Rankings
8. Patients transfer system	8. International patients	8. Corporate videos	8. Innovation projects
9. About doctors and researchers	9. Digital tools	9. Newsletter	9. Corporate social responsibility
10. International collaborations	10. Corporate reports	10. Patients’ stories	10. Corporate partnerships

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

. Finally, we used a binary system to check whether Australian hospitals’ official websites complied with each brand indicator. These organizations sometimes had these sections, but they named them differently: for example, “patients’ experience” rather than “patients”. We also considered those sections in those cases. Concerning dated information (annual reports and press releases), we analyzed those published in the two previous years; however, we included all elements related to non-dated information (list of diseases and support groups).

4. Results

Australia’s best hospitals use their websites as corporate communication tools to improve their relationships with stakeholders and reinforce their brand reputation. Our quantitative analysis revealed that 97.14% had a website; however, many did not comply with the 40 brand indicators, demonstrating that these organizations can still improve their online content strategies. We presented our results grouped into five main categories: (a) healthcare professionals, (b) patients, (c) media companies, (d) shareholders, and (e) global results.

Healthcare professionals. According to the results, 72.06% of hospitals with a website had a section called “for healthcare professionals”, in which they shared different inputs addressed to doctors and nurses: information about the hospital’s laboratories (73.47%), continuing education programs for healthcare professionals (73.47%), and scientific papers published by the hospital’s employees (57.14%). Nevertheless, only a few hospitals complied with the other criteria considered in this section: information about the patient transfer system (44.89%), clinical trials led by the hospital (40.82%), graduate medical education programs for healthcare professionals (36.73%), doctors’ and nurses’ professional backgrounds (26.53%), innovation projects led by the hospital in collaboration with external partners (18.37%), a request system for patients’ medical records (14.28%), and the hospital’s partnership with international organizations (10.20%). On the other hand, hospitals respected, on average, 3.96 criteria out of 10 applicable. The best hospitals in this category were Royal Melbourne Hospital–Parkville, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, and John Hunter Hospital (see

Table 2. Best hospitals: healthcare professionals.

Hospital	Number of Criteria Respected
Royal Melbourne Hospital–Parkville Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital John Hunter Hospital	8
The Alfred The Prince Charles Hospital	7
St Vincent’s Hospital–Fitzroy Westmead Hospital Eastern Health-Box Hill Hospital Sunshine Coast University Hospital University Hospital Geelong Blacktown Hospital Fiona Stanley Hospital The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Queensland Children’s Hospital–Pediatrics The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne–Pediatrics	6

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

).

Patients. A website section for patients is essential since it is one of the most critical targets for hospitals’ collective branding processes, which is why 85.51% of hospitals had a “patients” section. Even if most hospitals displayed a list of diseases and treatments (94.93%), appointment checklists for patients (61.02%), and digital tools that patients could use before and during their visit to the hospital (57.63%), most of them did not comply with the other brand indicators: a system to request patient’s medical records (37.29%), information about how patients must prepare for surgery (33.89%), support groups for patients (30.51%), corporate reports about the organization (23.73%), information about patients’ experiences in the hospital (22.03%), guidelines to help patients go home and follow their treatments (16.95%), and information for international patients (3.39%). On the other hand, 55.93% of hospitals with this section respected between two and four criteria. As shown in

Table 3. Best hospitals: patients section.

Hospital	Number of Criteria Respected
Monash Medical Centre–Clayton	8
The Alfred Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital Princess Alexandra Hospital The Prince Charles Hospital Liverpool Hospital Canberra Hospital St John of God Murdoch Hospital	7
St Vincent’s Hospital–Fitzroy The Tweed Hospital Greenslopes Private Hospital Blacktown Hospital Fiona Stanley Hospital	6

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

, the best hospital in this category was Monash Medical Centre–Clayton.

Media companies. Our results revealed that 98.53% of hospitals with a website had a newsroom where they published press releases about their healthcare professionals’ research projects (91.04%), the scientific events organized by the hospital (73.13%), the outreach projects the organization led with external partners (55.22%), and the hospital’s health education initiatives (50.75%). However, only a few hospitals respected the other brand indicators: corporate videos (32.84%), a health library (28.36%), facts about the organization (25.37%), a newsletter for journalists (16.42%), the hospital’s annual reports (10.45%), and patients’ stories (4.48%). On average, hospitals complied with 3.88 criteria out of 10 applicable. The best hospitals in this category were Austin Hospital–Heidelberg (nine criteria); Mater Hospital Brisbane and St John of God Subiaco Hospital (eight criteria); and Monash Medical Centre–Clayton, Cabrini Malvern, and Fiona Stanley Hospital (seven criteria).

Shareholders. All hospitals with a website had an “about us” section addressed to shareholders where they displayed facts and figures about the organization (83.82%), its brand architecture—mission, vision, values, identity, and culture—(70.59%), its history (55.89%), its annual reports (48.53%), and its governance systems and board of trustees (44.12%). Nevertheless, most hospitals did not respect the five other brand indicators: updates about the organization’s innovation projects (27.94%), its corporate social responsibility activities (27.94%), the awards recently received by the organization (25%), its positions in national and international rankings (11.76%), and its corporate partnerships with external organizations (11.76%). On the other hand, 52.94% of hospitals with this section complied with 2–4 brand indicators. The best organizations in this category were Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital and The Prince Charles Hospital (10 criteria); St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney (9 criteria); and St John of God Subiaco Hospital (8 criteria).

Global results. Even if most Australian hospitals used their websites to interact with stakeholders and reinforce their brand reputation, most did not comply with the 40 brand indicators considered in this analysis. These hospitals respected, on average, only 14.06 criteria. As shown in

Table 4. Best hospitals.

Hospital	Number of Criteria Respected
The Alfred The Prince Charles Hospital	27
Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital	25
St John of God Subiaco Hospital	24
Royal Melbourne Hospital–Parkville Monash Medical Centre–Clayton Fiona Stanley Hospital The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne-Pediatrics	23
St Vincent’s Hospital–Fitzroy John Hunter Hospital St John of God Murdoch Hospital Blacktown Hospital	22

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

, the best hospitals in Australia were The Alfred and The Prince Charles Hospital.

5. Discussion

Using websites to promote a brand constitutes a priority for hospitals. Indeed, 97.14% of Australia’s best hospitals had a corporate website. However, most of them did not implement efficient communication strategies to promote their brands: in fact, these hospitals respected, on average, 14.06 criteria of 40 applicable. This fact proves that Australian hospitals must revisit their online communication strategies and share more meaningful content to build their brand with their stakeholders collectively: healthcare professionals, patients, media companies, and shareholders.

The development of hospitals’ websites and other interactive tools allows healthcare professionals to improve their skills in information management systems and telemedicine techniques [15], which enables them to become active players in these organizations’ health education initiatives [31,48]. When hospitals efficiently integrate healthcare professionals into their online communication activities, they build a more credible brand [42]. However, our results demonstrated that most Australian hospitals did not share enough content to promote their doctors’ and nurses’ professional value: indeed, only a few hospitals had a section explaining their doctors’ and nurses’ professional backgrounds (26.53%). On the other hand, most hospitals did not display any information about their healthcare professionals’ projects with international companies (89.80%). Finally, only 18.37% of hospitals shared information about the innovation projects led by their healthcare professionals in collaboration with external partners. In other words, most Australian hospitals did not effectively integrate their healthcare professionals into their online communication activities, negatively affecting their brand reputation.

Patients play a crucial role in hospitals’ digital transformation since they actively participate in these organizations’ internal and external processes [49]. For this reason, they need to be trained in health literacy skills [43]; however, they also need hospitals to satisfy their emotional, cultural, and social needs [50]. When hospitals treat patients in an integrated way, they establish long-term relationships with them and build more credible brands [28]. Nevertheless, according to our quantitative results, most Australian hospitals used their websites to mainly share administrative information, such as lists of diseases and treatments (94.93%) or appointment checklists for patients (61.02%). In other words, most hospitals do not use websites to establish emotional, social, and cultural relationships with patients. Indeed, most hospitals did not display information about support groups for patients (69.49%), other patients’ experiences in the hospital (77.97%), or adapted information for international patients (96.61%).

Hospitals and media companies collaborate to address public health emergencies, such as outbreaks, and educate people on healthcare-related issues [53]. On the other hand, hospitals collaborate with external investors to implement organizational projects that transform these organizations from a business and medical perspective [52]. When hospitals actively collaborate with all stakeholders and prove with facts how they improve their lives, hospitals build credible brands [2,28]. However, our results revealed that most Australian hospitals did not establish genuine relationships with media companies and shareholders. Concerning the first ones, most Australian hospitals did not establish a dialogue with media companies; instead, they used their websites to share only basic information. In other words, they displayed press releases about their doctors’ research (91.04%) and the scientific events launched by the organization (73.13%), but they did not establish mechanisms to communicate with media companies frequently, such as newsletters (16.42%). As to shareholders, most hospitals displayed administrative information, such as facts and figures—83.82%—but did not explain some areas essential to understanding these organizations’ social legacy: innovation updates (27.94%) and corporate social responsibility projects (27.94%).

This paper revealed some essential facts about Australian hospitals’ online content strategies and their impact on brand reputation. However, three main limitations affected this research. First, we did not analyze each hospital’s corporate communication plan, which prevented us from understanding the websites’ role in these companies’ branding strategies. Second, we did not evaluate stakeholders’ perceptions about hospitals’ websites. Third, we did not find any paper analyzing the same topic, so we could not compare our results with those of hospitals from other countries. Despite these limitations, this paper contributed to a better understanding of how hospitals should use their websites to build their brands, an essential area for these organizations. For this reason, we recommend researchers develop this topic in the coming years, especially the role of healthcare professionals in hospitals’ collective branding activities, the impact of health education initiatives on hospitals’ scientific credibility, and the role of artificial intelligence in hospitals’ corporate communication strategies.

6. Conclusions

Australian hospitals use their corporate websites to reinforce their relationships with stakeholders and, in this way, build their brand collectively. These online communication activities are essential since the brand determines these organizations’ business activities and their stakeholders’ behaviors. For this reason, most Australian hospitals have implemented in-house communication departments that develop online content strategies to promote their brand. However, these departments face challenges that make it difficult to achieve this goal: the difficulty in disseminating scientific concepts, limited budgets for communication activities, strict legal frameworks, and healthcare professionals’ lack of skills in online communication. This paper analyzed how Australia’s best hospitals used their websites to share meaningful content and build their brands collectively with stakeholders. To conclude this paper, we wanted to highlight three main ideas to help these organizations make their online content strategies more dynamic and build more reputed brands.

First, Australian hospitals need to evolve from their current administrative approach focused on disseminating basic information (list of treatments, company’s history, and healthcare professionals’ scientific publications) to a more emotional one where they integrate this content with stakeholders’ emotional, cultural, and social needs and where websites become a space for dialogue and collective branding experiences. Second, these organizations need to make their brands more present on their websites, which involves promoting their identity as an intangible asset that determines employees’ behaviors, using their corporate values as a reference when describing medical information, explaining how the hospital’s mission and vision determine its current organizational projects, and proving with facts why the organization’s internal culture makes the hospital a unique place. Third, Australian hospitals should increase their collaborations with external institutions, such as media companies, and explain on their websites how they have led social changes that affect the healthcare industry and how these changes reinforce the hospital’s brand reputation and improve society.