Hospitals Use Websites to Attract Patients

Managers consider internet as the front door to their hospital. According to Jim Blazar, the Cleveland Clinic's chief marketing officer, the majority of patients that come to CCF for subspecialty care have found them on the internet.

About 10 to 15% of the monthly visitors become patients and subsequently generate revenue.

Most people think that the top three search results on Google are the best. Since it is so important to be at the top on GYM (Google, Yahoo, MSN), most big hospitals maintain elaborate websites aiming at informing the web surfers who are (hopefully) future patients.

My suggestions is not to trust the search engines so much. Just to give you an example: my website is the number one hit for "CHF exacerbation" on Google and I am in no way the world's top authority on CHF.

Reference:
Hospitals use websites to attract out-of-town patients - USA Today
Healthcare Marketers Prescribe Online Presence - Medical Informatics Insider