Web-Based Communication With a Patient in Hospital Care in Szczecin – Comparative Analysis of 2014 and 2018 (Komunikacja z pacjentem z wykorzystaniem stron www w opiece szpitalnej w Szczecinie – analiza porównawcza lat 2014 i 2018)

Purpose: The purpose is to assess the level and quality of e-communication of Szczecin’s entities providing hospital care and to compare the results in order to determine the differences and to indicate the changes occurring over time. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis covered the contents of the websites of all hospitals in Szczecin in 2014 and 2018. The desk research was carried out in the form of expert method done on the basis of the assessment criteria important from the patient’s point of view, treating the hospital’s website as a communication channel. These included identification issues, legibility, usefulness of information, forms of contact and modern e-communication. Findings: The level of communication differs a lot. It is slightly higher than in the past, but given the real needs in this respect, is not satisfactory. The best evaluation results concern the issue of identification of the entity. The situation is bad as regards the possibility of communication and the use of modern forms of e-communication. Only some of the hospitals have developed in the field of e-communication with the patient in a noticeable way, the rest have achieved little compared to the previous research period. Research limitations/implications: The study only focused on hospitals in the city of Szczecin. To get a complete picture, the analysis should cover the content of other hospitals’ websites from various localisations – bigger and smaller, more and less known. In order to understand the situation in the whole healthcare sector, it would be worth looking at other medical service providers. Originality/value: The conducted research shows how poorly developed are modern communication tools in hospitals, at the same time indicating the development directions in this area. The defined criteria can be applied to the study of websites of various providers on the healthcare market.