British Hospitals’ Online Content Strategies to Build Reputed Brands

Hospitals use websites and online platforms to share meaningful content and build their brands collectively with their stakeholders. However, they face challenges: legal frameworks, ethical standards, and stakeholders’ new information needs. This paper analyzes how the best hospitals in the United Kingdom used their websites to implement content strategies and build their brands collectively with their stakeholders. We conducted a literature review about hospitals’ brands, health education initiatives, and online reputation. Then, we defined 40 brand indicators to evaluate the best British hospitals’ branding efforts on their websites. Our results proved that most had sections for their main stakeholders (healthcare professionals, 51%; patients, 82%; media companies, 100%; shareholders, 100%). However, they only respected, on average, 13.22 indicators out of 40 applicable. We concluded that hospitals should implement an emotional branding communication approach, integrate employees into their branding initiatives, and establish more dynamic relationships with media companies.

Introduction

Hospitals use different communication tools to promote their brands and enhance stakeholder relationships. They use social media platforms, websites, mobile applications, press releases, annual reports, and corporate events to reinforce their relationship with employees, suppliers, patients, media companies, shareholders, and policymakers. However, building long-term relationships with stakeholders constitutes a challenge since these organizations must respect strict legal frameworks, follow several ethical standards, explain complex scientific concepts, adapt their communication efforts to each stakeholder’s health literacy skills, and train their healthcare professionals in interpersonal communication skills so that they become brand ambassadors. To overcome these barriers, most hospitals have implemented in-house corporate communication departments, where experts in medicine, public health, communication, and technology define strategies and launch initiatives to influence stakeholders’ perceptions about the organization’s brand.

This paper analyzes how the best hospitals in the United Kingdom used their websites to implement content strategies and build their brands collectively with their stakeholders. We conducted a literature review about hospitals’ brands, health education initiatives, and online reputation. Then, we resorted to the World’s Best Hospitals 2024, published by Newsweek and Statista, to identify the 100 best hospitals in the United Kingdom. Subsequently, based on our literature review, we defined 40 brand indicators that hospitals should respect in implementing efficient online content strategies to promote their brands. Finally, we analyzed whether each hospital in the United Kingdom respected the 40 brand indicators. Based on this quantitative analysis, we presented our main results and explained how the best hospitals in the United Kingdom used their websites to promote their brands. To conclude this paper, we highlighted three ideas that every hospital should respect to implement efficient branding initiatives on their websites.

Hospitals’ Online Branding Strategies

Hospital Brand

Building a reputed brand constitutes a priority for hospitals since it helps them reinforce their relationships with stakeholders and promote their strategic position in the healthcare industry (Medina-Aguerrebereet al., 2020). The hospital brand includes several aspects, such as tangible and intangible elements, employees’ skills, and patients’ medical outcomes (Odoomet al., 2019). However, the most crucial aspect remains the corporate identity since it guides the organization from a communication, business, and medical perspective (Singla & Sharma, 2021). On the other hand, some hospitals integrate different elements into their brands: some include aspects related to their original roots to be perceived as authentic brands (Rindell & Santos, 2021); and others include ethical standards to reinforce their social legacy (Sanderet al., 2021). When hospitals build their brands in an integrated way, they establish better relationships with stakeholders and become social institutions leading changes in the healthcare industry (Rahmanet al., 2021).

Hospitals find synergies between their brands and the cultural elements determining their stakeholders’ behaviors (Tanet al., 2020). This approach helps them develop persuasive messages reinforcing their brands and satisfying their stakeholders’ information needs (Jenkinset al., 2020). In this framework, some hospitals implement corporate social responsibility initiatives to prove with facts that they significantly contribute to improving society (Correaet al., 2021). Some hospitals focus their corporate social responsibility efforts on the countries where they develop their business; others implement actions in foreign countries where people face humanitarian emergencies (Mheidly & Fares, 2020). Regardless of every hospital’s corporate social responsibility strategy, these initiatives help them build a moral capital that improves their public image (Lithopouloset al., 2021) and acts as insurance if they face a crisis (Zhaoet al., 2021).

Building a credible brand constitutes a challenge since organizations must quantitatively and qualitatively prove that they enhance their stakeholders’ lives; however, they must also establish an emotional connection with them (De Las Heraset al., 2020). This emotional brand attachment helps them improve their corporate communication strategies and transform the hospital from a communication and medical perspective (Bian & Haque, 2020; Razmus, 2021). For this reason, hospitals constantly analyze their stakeholders’ emotional and social needs (Tsaiet al., 2021) and develop communication initiatives that allow stakeholders to have unique branding experiences, such as scientific conferences, online training, and cultural events (Hart & Phau, 2022). When hospitals integrate emotions and social aspects into their branding strategies, they make their corporate communication initiatives more efficient and build more reputed brands (Rahmanet al., 2021).

Hospital Brand and Health Education

Health education refers to the scientific knowledge that hospitals share with stakeholders; in other words, this area has nothing to do with marketing or sponsorship activities (Li & Xu, 2020). Hospitals use health education to promote healthy habits, reinforce patients’ literacy skills, and contribute to the common good (Zhao, 2021). When hospitals implement professional health education initiatives, they reinforce their relationships with stakeholders, especially patients (Finsetet al., 2020). Thanks to health education, hospitals can also promote patient-centered communication models (Nicholset al., 2021) that facilitate the implementation of shared decision-making processes among patients and healthcare professionals (Drieveret al., 2020). In other words, thanks to health education, patients become active players in the hospital system, reinforce their health literacy skills, and enhance their health self-management (Bolet al., 2020).

Hospitals’ branding initiatives integrate humanities and promote multidisciplinary approaches to efficiently satisfy their stakeholders’ emotional, social, and informational needs (Li & Xu, 2020). Promoting humanities involves hospitals prioritizing values such as knowledge, empathy, and human rights over business goals and key performance indicators (Shafieeet al., 2022). This communication approach is essential to explain scientific concepts and describe hospitals’ social impact (Mheidly & Fares, 2020). When these organizations excel in this area, stakeholders perceive them positively and establish long-term relationships with them (Steenbruggenet al., 2021). On the other hand, this approach reinforces healthcare professionals’ public image and scientific credibility (Zhanget al., 2021). In other words, promoting humanities helps hospitals improve their organizational processes (Marcaet al., 2020) and implement more efficient corporate communication initiatives (Reitsamer & Brunner, 2021).

Health education and humanism have become essential to helping hospitals build credible brands that stakeholders can trust (Bolet al., 2020). Trust is critical for hospitals since it determines their stakeholders’ perceptions and behaviors (Hart & Phau, 2022). For this reason, these organizations implement communication initiatives that reinforce their scientific credibility (Stellefsonet al., 2020). When hospitals become a credible source of medical information, they establish long-term relationships with their stakeholders and build their brands collectively (Etheredge & Fabian, 2022; Medina-Aguerrebereet al., 2020). However, to efficiently achieve this goal, hospitals need to consider two main principles: on the one hand, they must promote transparency as a value determining their internal and external processes (Barredoet al., 2021); and on the other hand, they must base their communication strategies on previous research to satisfy their stakeholders’ information needs (Adebesin & Mwalugha, 2020).

Hospital Brand and Online Reputation

Hospitals have implemented in-house corporate communication departments where public health, communication, and technology experts execute online content strategies adapted to each stakeholder’s informational and emotional needs (Medina-Aguerrebereet al., 2020). These departments analyze the organization’s internal and external factors, such as business plans (Butow & Hoque, 2020). Then, they define the hospital’s brand positioning and implement online communication plans (Khosravizadehet al., 2021). In other words, hospitals implement online content strategies to reinforce their brand credibility and reputation (Odoomet al., 2019). On the other hand, some hospitals manage online platforms to implement medical interventions, such as online consultations among patients and doctors (Huoet al., 2019). This way, hospitals prove with facts that stakeholders can trust them, which positively influences the organization’s brand credibility (Godseyet al., 2020).

Some hospitals use websites, social media, and mobile applications to promote online communities that accelerate collective branding processes (Sottoet al., 2020). These communities provide stakeholders with social, emotional, and informational support (Chen & Wang, 2021). In other words, they help stakeholders, especially patients, reinforce their health literacy skills and their empowerment (Wuet al., 2019). In this framework, some hospitals use online communities to promote their brand values and explain to stakeholders why the organization is unique from a medical and research perspective (Confente & Kucharska, 2021). To do that efficiently, hospitals train their healthcare professionals in branding aspects; this way, employees become brand ambassadors who educate other stakeholders and reinforce the hospital’s brand (Farsi, 2021). Finally, most hospitals use social media platforms to promote their online communities (Sottoet al., 2020): these platforms allow hospitals to share information about different areas, such as healthcare professionals’ research projects, which positively impacts the hospital’s brand credibility (Kordzadeh & Young, 2018; Wuet al., 2019).

Corporate reputation refers to indivisible networks of associations that people deploy whenever they interact with organizations (Govers, 2020). These associations are determined by organizations’ behaviors and practices (Xifra, 2020). In other words, healthcare professionals’ behaviors and hospitals’ internal policies determine their stakeholders’ perceptions of the organization’s reputation. Therefore, these organizations try to professionalize their online presence in social media, mobile applications, and websites (Triemstraet al., 2018). Hospitals integrate these three platforms into their official communication plans to efficiently reinforce their brand reputation and establish quantitative and qualitative systems to evaluate their impact on the company’s reputation (Ren & Ma, 2021). Finally, some hospitals also develop branding strategies to promote some employees’ reputation (Wanget al., 2020) as well as creative online initiatives to help other stakeholders have meaningful experiences with the hospital brand (Zhaoet al., 2021).

Method

Hospitals in the United Kingdom implement online communication initiatives to reinforce their relationships with stakeholders and build their brands collectively. Most use social media platforms and mobile applications; however, the official website remains the most critical corporate communication tool. To understand how the United Kingdom’s best hospitals manage their websites to build a reputed brand, we resorted to the World’s Best Hospitals 2024, an annual ranking published by Newsweek and Statista that defined national rankings for several countries, as well as a global ranking. Both organizations analyzed 2.400 hospitals from 30 countries. To do that, they used four criteria: a) recommendations from 85.000 doctors working in 30 different countries; b) patient surveys that evaluated their opinions about hospitals; c) hospital quality indicators on quality of care, doctor-patient ratios, and safety standards; and d) patient-reported outcomes measures questionnaires that analyzed patients’ perceptions about quality of life. Each criterion had a different weight on the hospital’s global grade and consequent positions in those rankings: 45%, 16.25%, 35.25%, and 3.5%, respectively. A Global Board of Medical experts validated all quantitative results from several countries, including France, Germany, and the United States (Newsweek, 2024).

We focused on the best hospitals in the United Kingdom and analyzed how they used their websites to interact with healthcare professionals, patients, media companies, and shareholders. These four targets are the most important ones to build a reputed brand collectively: healthcare professionals are brand ambassadors who represent the hospital (Sottoet al., 2020), patients have become opinion leaders who determine other stakeholders’ perceptions about the hospital (Wanget al., 2020), media companies are essential for hospitals’ health education campaigns (Mheidly & Fares, 2020), and shareholders have the power to influence hospitals’ branding efforts by making business decisions (Rudd, 2022).

From September 12 to October 3, 2024, we quantitatively analyzed how the United Kingdom’s best hospitals managed their websites to implement online content strategies and promote their brands collectively with their stakeholders. Thanks to our literature review, we defined 40 brand indicators that these organizations should respect to build credible brands. Then, we grouped those indicators into four categories, each referring to one of the four stakeholders: healthcare professionals, patients, media companies, and shareholders. Subsequently, we matched each category with a particular section that hospitals had on their corporate websites: a) healthcare professionals (“for healthcare professionals” section); b) patients (“patients” section); c) media companies (“newsroom” section); and d) shareholders (“about us” section). Table I presents an overview of them. Finally, we used a binary system to evaluate whether each hospital respected the 40 brand indicators. Some hospitals named these four sections differently: for instance, “employees” rather than “for healthcare professionals”. In those cases, we considered all these sections. Concerning dated information (press releases, annual reports), we only evaluated those published in the two previous years.

Table I. Brand Indicators

Healthcare professionals	Patients	Media companies	Shareholders
For healthcare professionals	Patients	Newsroom	About us
1. Scientific publications	1. List of diseases and treatments	1. Research led by doctors	1. Company’s history
2. Innovation projects with external partners	2. Appointment checklists	2. Scientific events organized by the hospital	2. Brand architecture (mission, vision, values, identity, culture)
3. Continuing education programs	3. Preparing for surgery	3. Outreach projects with external partners	3. Governance and board of trustees
4. Graduate medical education programs	4. Planning to go home	4. Health education initiatives	4. Annual reports
5. Laboratories	5. Request medical records	5. Health library	5. Facts and figures
6. Clinical trials	6. Support groups	6. Hospital facts	6. Awards
7. Request medical records for patients	7. Patients’ experiences	7. Annual reports	7. Rankings
8. Patients transfer system	8. International patients	8. Corporate videos	8. Innovation projects
9. About doctors and researchers	9. Digital tools	9. Newsletter	9. Corporate social responsibility
10. International collaborations	10. Corporate reports	10. Patients’ stories	10. Corporate partnerships

Results

Hospitals resort to corporate websites to enhance their relationships with stakeholders and build the brand collectively. This activity constitutes a priority for these organizations. Our results proved that most British hospitals followed this logic: in fact, all hospitals considered in our analysis had a corporate website where they shared information addressed to different stakeholders: healthcare professionals, patients, media companies, and shareholders. However, most hospitals still needed to comply with the 40 brand indicators. We presented our results grouped into five main categories: a) healthcare professionals, b) patients, c) media companies, d) shareholders, and e) global results.

Healthcare Professionals

According to our results, 51% of hospitals having a website had a “for healthcare professionals” section where they displayed different information: doctors’ and nurses’ scientific publications (80.39%), internal functioning of the hospital’s laboratories (80.39%), continuing education programs addressed to doctors and nurses (78.43%), graduate medical education programs organized by the hospital in collaboration with universities (54.90%) and results of the hospital’s clinical trials (50.98%). Nevertheless, only a few hospitals in the United Kingdom shared information about patients’ transfer systems (37.25%), innovation projects launched in collaboration with external partners (35.29%), internal procedures to request patients’ medical records (31.37%), doctors’ and nurses’ professional backgrounds (11.76%) or collaborations established with hospitals and research centers from other countries (3.92%). On the other hand, British hospitals respected, on average, 4.65 indicators out of 10 applicable. The best hospitals in this category were Royal Hampshire County Hospital (9 indicators), King’s College Hospital, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Southmead Hospital Bristol, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital (8 indicators); University College Hospital, King’s Mill Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital and University Hospital–Coventry (7 indicators).

Patients

Our results proved that 82% of hospitals having a website had a “patients” section where they shared information about diseases and treatments (100%), procedures to request medical records (67.07%), appointment checklists for patients (62.19%), and digital tools that the last ones could use during their visit at the hospital-patient portals, mobile applications-(59.76%). However, only some hospitals respected the other brand indicators: information to help patients prepare for surgery (30.49%), corporate reports about the organization (26.83%), support groups for patients (24.39%), instructions to help patients come back home after their treatment at the hospital (21.95%), particular inputs adapted to international patients’ informational needs (12.19%), and patients’ experiences in the hospital (10.98%). On the other hand, hospitals complied on average with 4.16 indicators out of 10 applicable. As shown in Table II, the best one in this category was St Helens Hospital.

Table II. Best Hospitals: Patients Section

Hospital	Number of indicators respected
St Helens Hospital	9
Royal Hallamshire Hospital	8
Tameside General Hospital
London Bridge Hospital	7
Bristol Royal Infirmary
East Surrey Hospital
Royal Free Hospital
Royal Surrey County Hospital
The London Independent Hospital
Burnley General Hospital
The Wellington Hospital

Media Companies

All hospitals having a website had also a newsroom where they displayed press releases about their doctors’ and nurses’ research projects (93%), the scientific events organized by the hospital (79%), and the outreach projects that the organization had implemented in collaboration with external partners (52%). Nevertheless, only a few hospitals complied with the other brand indicators considered in this section: corporate videos (43%), press releases about health education initiatives (40%), facts and figures about the hospital (34%), health library (29%), annual reports (22%), newsletters for journalists (15%) and patients’ stories (4%). On average, hospitals respected 4.11 indicators out of 10 applicable. The best hospitals in this category were London Bridge Hospital (9 indicators); Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at Little France, Royal Derby Hospital, and Royal Hampshire County Hospital (8 indicators); Royal Free Hospital, Homerton University Hospital, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, The Princess Grace Hospital and Tameside General Hospital (7 indicators).

Shareholders

All hospitals that had a website had an “about us” section addressed to shareholders, in which they shared facts and figures about the organization (90%) and mentioned some corporate milestones (57%). However, only some hospitals respected the other brand indicators: hospital’s brand architecture-mission, vision, values, identity, culture-(42%), annual reports (37%), hospital’s governance and board of trustees (27%), corporate social responsibility initiatives (24%), awards (20%), innovation projects (14%), corporate partnerships established with other institutions (14%), and place in rankings (8%). On average, hospitals complied with 3.33 indicators out of 10 applicable. As shown in Table III, the best hospitals in this category were University College Hospital, East Surrey Hospital, and Royal Derby Hospital.

Table III. Best Hospitals: About Us Section

Hospital	Number of indicators
University College Hospital	8
East Surrey Hospital
Royal Derby Hospital
St Thomas’ Hospital	7
Guy’s Hospital
John Radcliffe Hospital
London Bridge Hospital
Royal Hampshire County Hospital
Chesterfield Royal Hospital
King’s College Hospital	6
Bristol Royal Infirmary
Royal Free Hospital
Royal Surrey County Hospital
Tameside General Hospital

Global Results

Most hospitals in the United Kingdom use their websites to share corporate information and influence their four main stakeholders’ perceptions: healthcare professionals, patients, media companies, and shareholders. However, our results proved that these organizations must enhance their online content strategies to build their more efficiently. These organizations only respected, on average, 13.22 indicators out of 40 applicable. To achieve this goal, they can follow the example of some of the best hospitals in the country: Royal Hampshire County Hospital, University College Hospital, London Bridge Hospital, and Bristol Royal Infirmary (see Table IV).

Table IV. Best Hospitals

Hospital	Number of indicators respected
Royal Hampshire County Hospital	30
University College Hospital	27
London Bridge Hospital
Bristol Royal Infirmary
Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital	25
East Surrey Hospital	24
Royal Free Hospital
Homerton University Hospital
Royal Surrey County Hospital
Chesterfield Royal Hospital

Discussion

Building a reputed brand constitutes a medical, business, and communication challenge since hospitals must implement collective processes with their stakeholders, respect strict legal frameworks, and integrate the brand into different internal protocols. For this reason, most hospitals have implemented an in-house corporate communication department that manages this area professionally. Our results proved that all British hospitals considered in this analysis had a corporate website that shared branding content addressed to different stakeholders; however, these organizations only complied, on average, with 13.22 brand indicators out of 40 applicable. This fact demonstrated that most British hospitals should professionalize their online content strategies, especially those addressed to healthcare professionals, patients, media companies, and shareholders.

Healthcare professionals working in hospitals help patients from a medical, emotional, and social perspective (Tomokawaet al., 2021). This humanistic approach improves their scientific credibility (Medina-Aguerrebereet al., 2020), enhances patients’ medical outcomes (Shiet al., 2021), and reinforces the hospital’s brand reputation (Lithopouloset al., 2021). Despite the strategic importance of healthcare professionals in hospitals’ online branding initiatives, most British hospitals did not integrate them efficiently into their corporate websites. In fact, 49% of hospitals did not have a “for healthcare professionals” section. Concerning those having this section, most promoted their doctors’ and nurses’ scientific credibility by only sharing their academic publications (80.39%); however, 64.71% of hospitals did not display information about the projects led by their healthcare professionals in collaboration with external partners, and 96.08% did not explain the international medical projects implemented by doctors and nurses. In other words, most British hospitals did not do enough to promote their healthcare professionals’ scientific credibility, negatively affecting their brand reputation.

Patients play a crucial role in the hospital’s system (Navarro, 2020), which is why these organizations promote their empowerment (Tilkinet al., 2019) and implement shared decision-making processes to help patients interact more efficiently with doctors (Drieveret al., 2020). When hospitals follow this logic, they implement more efficient branding processes with their patients (Tsaiet al., 2021). According to our results, British hospitals made consistent efforts to help patients play a vital role in the hospital system: all hospitals considered in this analysis shared a list of diseases and treatments, 67.07% displayed information to help patients request medical records, and 59.76% proposed them to use digital tools, such as patient portals or mobile application, to improve their health self-management. This fact demonstrated that most British hospitals considered patients strategic stakeholders from a medical, communication, and social perspective. However, most hospitals only shared administrative information not adapted to patients’ cultural, emotional, and social needs. This proved that these organizations must improve their relationships with patients by sharing more meaningful content.

Hospitals and media companies work together to educate citizens in healthcare-related areas (Bangeet al., 2019), reinforce their health literacy skills (Gever & Ezeah, 2020), and protect their rights to quality medical information (Ratzanet al., 2020), which is especially important in the age of social media where misinformation has become a public health threat (Reyna, 2020). Our results revealed that British hospitals shared press releases about different areas with media companies, such as healthcare professionals’ research projects (93%) and outreach events organized by the institutions (52%). However, hospitals did not make enough efforts to establish a dialogue with media companies: in fact, only 15% of them had a newsletter addressed to media companies, and only 22% shared annual reports adapted to journalists’ informational needs. On the other hand, even if all British hospitals had an “about us” section for shareholders, most did not develop this content professionally: in fact, only a few hospitals shared information about some topics that are essential for shareholders, such as the organization’s corporate social responsibility activities (24%), its innovation projects (14%) or its place in national and international rankings (8%).

This article revealed that corporate websites remain essential for British hospitals’ online content strategies; however, these organizations must develop more meaningful content to influence their stakeholders’ perceptions more efficiently. Despite this interesting input, several limitations affected this research. First, we could not analyze the impact of each branding indicator on stakeholders’ perceptions about the hospital’s brand. Second, we did not consider the legal aspects determining hospitals’ communication initiatives in the United Kingdom. Third, we could not find similar research comparing our results with those of other countries’ hospitals. Even if these limitations determined our results, this article highlighted several ideas about an essential area for hospitals: online branding strategies. Researchers interested in this topic should focus on different areas, such as the role of healthcare professionals in hospitals’ brand credibility, the impact of artificial intelligence in these organizations’ online branding strategies, and the role of humanities in hospitals’ social legacy.

Conclusion

British hospitals use their corporate websites to share meaningful content and build the brand collectively with their stakeholders. However, they face several challenges: patients’ new informational needs, global competition, strict legal frameworks, and difficulty in conveying scientific content. In this framework, some hospitals have implemented in-house communication departments to professionalize their online presence and build their brands more efficiently. These departments assume several responsibilities, such as organizing corporate events, sharing press releases with media companies, or producing annual reports for shareholders. However, their primary responsibility should not be final products (press releases, reports) but developing annual content strategies consistent with the organization’s brand requirements; in other words, these departments’ primary responsibility consists of using critical thinking, social consciousness, creativity, and communication strategies to build reputed brands that stakeholders can trust.

This paper aimed to analyze how the best hospitals in the United Kingdom used their websites to implement annual content strategies and build their brands collectively with their stakeholders. Based on our quantitative and qualitative results, we proposed three last ideas to help these organizations achieve that goal. First, hospitals must not focus on sharing administrative information; instead, they should prioritize emotional branding approaches to establish medical, cultural, social, and emotional relationships with their stakeholders, especially healthcare professionals, patients, media companies, and shareholders. Second, our results proved that 49% of hospitals did not have a “for healthcare professionals” section, which constitutes a reputational risk since employees are brand ambassadors who represent the hospital and promote its values. For this reason, we recommend that hospitals professionalize their “for healthcare professionals” sections and integrate their doctors and nurses into the company’s online corporate communication initiatives. Third, hospitals must implement more dynamic communication activities to establish better relationships with media companies. Our results revealed that most British hospitals shared press releases about different areas, such as research (93%) or scientific events (79%), which is essential but insufficient. These organizations should also implement interactive platforms allowing external journalists to interview doctors from their hospital offices. Besides, they should produce customized videos adapted to each media company’s informational needs, share 3D information graphics about medical treatments, and establish joint programs to promote health education in collaboration with media companies.