Ostend General Hospital (AZ Oostende)
The demand
AZ Oostende is the new hospital as a merger of AZ Damiaan and AV Henri Serruys. The launch of the website was divided into several phases. In a first phase, we needed a website to announce the merger. In a second phase, we launched the final website.
Our solution
After a thorough analysis of the current websites of AZ Damiaan and AV Henri Serruys, we determined which would become the basic elements of the new website. We also took into account the priorities set by the new management and the City of Ostend.
We thoroughly analysed the content pages of both websites of the individual hospitals.
This was followed by a cardsort session for the website. In it, we determine the navigation structure for the new websites together with the client. For phase 1, the announcement website, we organised and initial session and then a separate cardort session for phase 2, the actual merger website.
Based on the new name, AZ Ostend, and new corporate identity, we developed a graphic design for the website. As the visual identity was still under construction and had not been applied before, we scheduled appropriate consultations with our graphic experts. Their experience helped the developers of the house style to take the right elements into account.
First phase: the announcement
In March 2023, the new website was launched in its first phase. A result that was worth seeing!
The website also formed the first visual elaboration of the corporate identity towards the outside world.
Second phase: the official new website
Immediately after launching the announcement website, we continued working on building the actual website for the new hospital, so that it could go live at the time of the merger.
We then put the second phase of the project online at the end of October 2023. It became a website where visitors can navigate through the range of doctors and services in a user-friendly way. In addition, there is an extensive offer of news, activities and jobs.
Link with job application HR Technologies
Within the Paddle CMS platform, we have provided an integration with the HR Technologies platform, so that AZ Oostende can manage their vacancies in one place.
This link allows you to create, change content, add and delete vacancies. Vacancies are forwarded to the website through an API integration.
Using an intuitive filter, the visitor can filter through different categories that are loaded into the website. The visitor can also apply immediately. Thanks to the connection via the API, the content is always up to date.
Growth
Launching a new hospital website involves a lot of tasks for the communication department involved.
Paddle makes websites grow all the time. So AZ Oostende continues to work on content optimisation and we continue to work on new functional extensions in the meantime. Growing together, we do that well.