title: Quality of Public Hospitals Websites: A Cross-Sectional Analytical Study in Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nowadays, hospitals have turned increasingly towards the Internet and develop their own web presence. Hospital Websites could be operating as effective web resources of information and interactive communication mediums to enhance hospital services to the public.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the quality of websites in Tehran's public hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional analysis involved all public hospitals in Iran's capital city, Tehran, with a working website or subsites between April and June, 2014 (N=59). The websites were evaluated using three validated instruments: a localized checklist, Google page rank, and the Alexa traffic ranking. The mentioned checklist consisted of 112 items divided into five sections: technical characteristics, hospital information and facilities, medical services, interactive on-line services and external activities. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean website evaluation score was 45.7 out of 224 for selected public hospitals. All the studied websites were in the weak category based on the earned quality scores. There was no statistically significant association between the website evaluation score with Google page rank (P=0.092), Alexa global traffic rank and Alexa traffic rank in Iran (P>0.05). The hospital websites had a lower quality score in the interactive online services and external activities criteria in comparing to other criteria. Due to the low quality level of the studied websites and the importance of hospital portals in providing information and services on the Internet, the authorities should do precise planning for the appreciable improvement in the quality of hospital websites.
authors.affiliation: Hepatitis Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran.
authors.forename: Shahin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Salarvand
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Information Technology, School of Allied Medicine, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran.
authors.forename: Mahnaz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Samadbeik
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, School of Health and Nutrition, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Javad
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Tarrahi
authors.affiliation: Islamic Azad University, Khorasgan Branch, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamed
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Salarvand
keywords: Content; Evaluation; Hospital Website; Quality