Table 2.

Categories of advertising on hospital websites.

Category	Description
Price	Any information on the price or cost of services. This includes information on the price for specific procedures or services as well as information on the average cost of services for a particular diagnosis. The information could deal with the list prices, average reimbursed price, or the expected copayments of the patient. This could be located on the home page or found via a website search.
Quality outcomes	Quantifiable information on outcomes of care. These include data on process or outcome measures, or comparison statistics in which the hospital’s outcomes are presented relative to other hospitals. Qualitative descriptions of quality were not included in this category, such as a statement that the hospital is “a regional leader in cardiovascular outcomes,” unless accompanied by some quantifiable data. This could be located on the home page, found via search, or linked to offsite. An example of this occurs when a hospital publishes its own scores on 30-day readmissions from Medicare’s Hospital Compare website or informs the consumer about data available from an offsite source and links the consumer to the external website.
Patient safety	Quantifiable depiction of patient safety outcomes. This includes information on rates of hospital-acquired infections, pressure ulcers, medication errors, falls, surgical errors, etc. Information could be found on the home page or via search; data could be located on the website or available via a link to an external website.
Customer satisfaction	Data on previous patients’ experiences with the hospital. This could include information from Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) surveys, Press Ganey patient satisfaction surveys, or some other numerical or comparative depiction of patient satisfaction with care. An example is the percent of patients that would recommend the hospital to their friends or family.
Awards and accreditation	Formal recognition from an outside entity. Examples include being a top hospital in some specialty or receiving accreditation for a service.
Personal stories	Anecdotal experiences from patients or staff that recount the care they received or provided at the hospital. This includes written experiences and videos relating to how the hospital served the patient or the experience of staff while working at the hospital and serving patients.
Amenities	Includes references to the physical facilities, such as buildings, parking, cafeterias, and gift shops or support services, such as consumer advocates, chaplains, and support groups. Also includes qualitative descriptions of the hospital, such as the atmosphere patients will experience, and nonmedical information available at the hospital, such as cooking classes or healthy recipes.
Service lines	Specialties and service lines that the hospital offers; includes inpatient and ambulatory services.
Access	Features of the hospital that make receiving care easier for patients. This can be in the form of some convenience (location or hours of operation), insurances accepted, lists of physicians affiliated with the hospital, ways to interact with the hospital through social media, and online features, such as emergency department wait times and online bill pay.
Technology	Medical technology or equipment the hospital uses. Examples include robotic surgery and 3D mammography.
Research	Any form of inquiry into outcomes of disease. Includes formal clinical trials under review at the hospital and any highlighted research of individual staff members.
Patient education	Any information for patients on diseases, such as prevention, treatment, or disease management; includes classes, videos, and risk assessment guides in addition to literature.
Affiliations	Formal relationships with universities or hospital systems. This only includes hospitals that advertise an affiliation with a university or hospital system on their website.
Employment opportunities	Information on available jobs at the hospital, including job listings and online job applications.