10 Best Hospital Website Designs That Will Inspire Yours

Best Hospital Website Design

The things that bring people to a hospital website are usually not pleasant. But the things that make them stay have to be. If you're going to turn Googlers into patients, your website will have to be more than aesthetically pleasing - it'll have to be responsive, authoritative, easy-to-use, and highly informative.

It'll have to boast those anxiety-soothing features that convince Googlers their search is over. They've arrived. They've discovered their healthcare haven; landed in the competent hands of compassionate professionals who will provide a happy ending to their healthcare odyssey. If your visitors feel this, they'll click and stay with your hospital for the remainder of their treatment journey - and maybe even for life.

Research shows, that once they've landed on your site, you've got 7 seconds to entice searchers to stay. That's how long you have to assure them that you can (and already have, for other patients) solve their specific problem. To help them overcome any doubt, fear, or skepticism about your institution, your staff, or your treatments.

So, what makes them stay?

After 17 years of designing medical website user-experience, strategizing SEO optimization, and crafting copy that converts we've got an idea. Creating a patient facing website requires asking some questions about what patients want and need.

Who searches online for healthcare?

Studies show that educated women and men between age 35 and 44 are most likely to search the web for health-related information, as they are beginning to develop health concerns at this age. Some of these top users are bilingual, and English may not be their first language. They may be searching with their elderly parents who may be intimidated by internet technology, but still want to be part of their own healthcare and require large, bold fonts and buttons. They may be legally blind or epileptic and require your site to be ADA compliant. They may be students just researching now, but are likely to need your services in the future. They will be expecting evidence based content.

When do healthcare web surfers visit hospital sites?

Many of your future patients will land on your website during a medical emergency, a moment of despair, or at least of urgency. They will likely be on the move - and 80% of them will be searching on their cell phones, possibly on their 30 minute lunch break. They will often be parents seeking treatment for their child, who may be running around transforming the house into a tricycle race track while mom or dad are clicking away for answers. These potential patients need a fast-loading, responsive site with quality user experience architecture. They just don't have the time or energy to navigate any more steps than absolutely necessary.

To call or not to call: how do they decide?

Once they've read and seen images of the healing or treatment process, as well as concrete case studies of your past treatment successes your searcher is more likely to become your patient. His or her buying journey usually occurs in 4 fast-paced stages:

  • eye it: the searcher must navigate easily through your site and see exactly what it offers
  • feel it: the searcher must be "wow-d" - aesthetically attracted to and emotionally comforted with - your design, and confident about navigating your campus
  • buy it: finally, the searcher decides the content is compelling and convincing enough to click or call and book an appointment
  • own it: your newly converted patient will want a portal where he or she can find test results and medical records, as well as keep track of billing via few easy steps

By asking and answering these questions for hundreds of clients, we've discovered the non-negotiable features of a successful hospital website:

  • easy, fast-loading, intuitive navigation
  • mobile-friendly design
  • specialist finder / specialist directory
  • location finder / location directory
  • website content search
  • interactive campus map
  • multi-lingual support
  • online patient records and bill-pay portal integration
  • event calendar
  • robust, evidence based patient education content
  • rankings or reviews

Top 10 Hospital Website Designs

Behold, our List of Top 10 Hospital Websites - all of which feature all of the above. We can't tell you which of them we developed, but we'd like to share the special design elements that impressed us most on each site. We dare you to leave any of these in 7 seconds:

  1. www.mayoclinic.org

    Mayo Clinc Website Design

    Welcome to clean design. Featuring large, senior-friendly and ADA compliant call-to-action buttons, followed by a relatable laughing (read: Mayo-healed) couple that could be your next door neighbors. Underneath their feel-good portrait with blue sky back drop you'll be able to find any disease or condition that's ailing or interesting you. It's only at the very bottom of the page, on the third link box that the site boasts the fact that Mayo Clinic is ranked #1 in the nation. A sparkling example of the "patient-facing" means patient first philosophy, which we follow with all of our designs and content deliverables. (Yes, we try to learn from the best.)

  2. www.sinai.org

    Sinai Health System Website Design

    Talk about real. Real people casting in advertising and marketing has been trending for years, but Sinai Hospital masterfully executes this tactic with elegant, emotionally-resonant portraits representing a cross-section of America. People of every age, gender, color, and background are not staring into the camera posing - they're gazing into their own thoughts (just like the site visitors). No matter who you are, you'll see yourself represented, and feel an immediate visceral connection. Trust is likely to follow. The Espanol and text size adjustment tabs at the top of the webpage serve to relax many users who are often uncomfortable with the web.

  3. www.cedars-sinai.org

    Cedars Sinai Website Design

    Engaging case studies really bring home the idea that healthcare is performed by humans on humans. Seeing people in real life situations and discovering how they healed makes the visitor believe they can heal too. We spend a good amount of feel-good time at Cedars Sinai.

  4. www.ucsfhealth.org

    UCSF Health Website Design

    The top of the home page features large MyChart and Find a Doctor buttons, underneath which you'll find an emotionally impactful video about a young woman who received a successful treatment from USCF neurologists that changed her life. After watching, we found it hard to believe that anyone could not trust these passionate professionals.

  5. www.dukehealth.org

    Duke Health Website Design

    A prominent reminder of Duke's national ranking is followed by a pop-up: "Your opinion matters!" What else matters to these medical specialists is that a patient know their story - including the neurosurgeon who moonlights as a Buddhist priest. Needless to say, we were intrigued. And that 7 seconds turned into 17 minutes on this site.

  6. www.carsontahoe.com

    Carson Tahoe Website Design

    Talk about birds eye view! When you click on this beauty you see the sun rising over the campus, then the camera swoops into the surgery room where doctors in scrubs are preparing to begin a procedure. At the bottom of the screen is a white non obtrusive (no pressure) Help Me Find search bar. Whenever you're ready...

  7. my.clevelandclinic.org

    Cleveland Clinic Website Design

    Access Anytime Anywhere is the white tagline posted across an image of a hospital employee assisting a man in a wheel chair out of the facility after successful treatment. That's the way you make one of the nation's top institutions way less intimidating and way more accessible. The FIND A DOCTOR, GET DIRECTIONS, and APPOINTMENTS & ACCESS buttons are large but not overpowering in color or font. Whether it's a specialist's bio you want to read, directions you want to download, or appointments you want to book, this site makes it easy and personable.

  8. www.massgeneral.org

    Massachusetts General Website Design

    Not only does Massachusetts General offer two easy to spot Find a Doctor tabs, medical skeptics can also Find a Researcher! Searching by either name or specialty, you can find the hospital's latest studies done in partnership with Harvard Medical School. The sliders at the top of the home page cite top hospital and research rankings. We had no doubt we'd be in good hands at this institution.

  9. www.nm.org

    noreferrer Northwestern Medicine Website Design

    Northwestern Medicine in our own Windy City features oversized statistics as a credibility check just above the LEARN MORE and FIND A DOCTOR tabs. Beneath those, you'll find a photo of a passionate researcher working in a lab with a link to a story about the Hospital's latest scientific breakthrough. In a science and stats based society there's no better way to convert and maintain lifelong patients who check in periodically - even when they're not sick. (We do.)

  10. childrensnational.org

    Childrens National Health System Website Design

    Nothing like a photo of cute kid to sell your services, but this home page presents so much more. The Find a Doctor button is right on top, and the SEARCH SERVICES bar is supported by highly targeted pediatric specialties. Saves you time and mental bandwidth when you're struggling with a child's pain, disability, or confusion. The links to various services are bright, bold, and easily distinguishable, so taking action is a breeze. And any credibility concerns are immediately quelled by the US News & World Report and Magnet Nurses rankings.


Even if you're not one of the Top 10 Hospitals in the country, your website can look and function as effectively as these do. You may not have a super high US News & World Report ranking (yet), but you do have reviews, publications, local awards or feature articles to feature. And - you've got WebToMed. To "wow" your future patients with your hospital website design call us today at: (866) 999-8550.

Tags: Hospital Website Design, Medical Website Design

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