Website leading the way through changing health care landscape

TAMC’s website recently earned its sixth honor and was the only hospital in the state to receive recognition in a national “Best in Class” list for health care websites.    “As a leading health care organization in the region, and as part of EMHS, we are always looking for innovative ways to communicate with, and engage our patients and community. We are doing innovative things online and in social media to help raise awareness of the breadth and depth of services we offer locally in Aroostook County,” said Joy Barresi Saucier, TAMC vice president of knowledge services.
“We are also using technology to make it easier for our patients to connect with us, such as new patient portals which provide an online tool for patients to view test results and access their protected health information in real time. This award, on the heels of recently being named among the top 25 ‘Most Wired’ Rural Hospitals in the nation, shows that our efforts are being recognized,” she added.
Each year, Lighthouse Web Solutions, the company that TAMC contracts with for web design services, participates in a Healthcare Internet Conference where approximately 260 health care-related organizations nationwide receive recognition for their outstanding websites and digital communications. At a recent conference held in New Orleans, two of the event organizers, Greystone.net and Krames-StayWell, selected the TAMC website as one of the winners for their prestigious “Best in Class” awards in the category of SEO/SEM (Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing). This marks the sixth award TAMC has earned for its website, and it’s the hospital’s biggest award achievement to date.
“TAMC has been using social media heavily in recent years, utilizing Facebook and Twitter to engage with our patients and community at large. To date, Facebook has been our platform of choice, and we have seen a steady climb in our ‘Likes’ over the past five months from 1,800 to now 2,359,” said TAMC Communication Assistant Natalie St. Pierre, who handles the organizations social media postings. “Combining our website with social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter has allowed us to further share the pertinent health care information found on our website with our patients on a more personal level.”
The website can be found at www.tamc.org.