Redundant and strangely reassuring as it may seem, Hennepin County Medical Center’s tagline is “Every Life Matters”; while clearly a good principle to choose your hospitals by, it’s certainly not an outburst in news: it would be the same to say that water’s wet or that the winter’s cold. Metonymically, the site is pretty much about obvious information and little functionalities: certainly not my cup of tea, but probably handy for the hospital’s patients and visitors.
Some of the useful sections include a guide to nearby hotels, and a parking lot pricelist, together with extensive institutional information catering for the needs of both doctors and patients; a notorious absence in this site –most notably so if you consider that it hosts a variety of professional and doctor training programs— is patient information, general health guidelines, links to other medical glossaries and resources, or even risk control or first aid tips. Other hospitals’ sites go a step further and allow patients to schedule tests and fill insurance forms online, but it’s clear that news of these trends haven’t reached Minnesota for the time being; will it take them long to update?
