Word Press In The Health Sector

WordPress in the Health Sector
Michael Kimb Jones
July 19th 2009 - WordCamp UK

WordPress in the NHS
WordPress in large enterprise
WordPress for local government
WordPress as a CMS

About me…
Michael
Kimb
Jones
Web Solutions Manager
Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

About me…
Michael
Kimb
Jones
Freelance Work
Base6 Design Ltd

About me…
Michael
Kimb
Jones
Personal Blog: mkjones.co.uk
Twitter: @mkjones
Base6: base6design.com

Contents...
The NHS CMS Predicament
Lack of tools/strategy
Issues faced
Fixing the problem
Set-up at Barnsley Hospital BEFORE the re-development
Internal/External web presence
Off-shoot (rebel) sites
Reasons for re-development
Website Re-development Project
Project objectives
The road to WordPress
WordPress set-up (plugins, users, etc)
Site stats, feedback & future plans

The NHS CMS Predicament

The NHS CMS Predicament...
There is a problem with CMS’s in the NHS
No central body has been given the responsibility of providing this service
This causes health organisations to waste time and money on the procurement of non-standardised and untestedCMS tools or developing their own systems

For example...
121 Foundation Trusts
121 different systemsand ideas for content management
121 web development teams and 1000s of users not communicating with each other
Leads to frustration, a lack of standards and a lot of wasted time and money

Issues faced
Some organisations invest more money than others depending on priorities, staffing, support
Not all organisations have a dedicated and skilled team which can support or develop a CMS solution
Often organisations are seen as easy targets for development firms out to make a ‘quick buck’ (NHS Cash-cow syndrome)

Fixing the problem??

Its clear that the NHS possess quality CMS solutions...
DoH
NHS Direct
NHS Choices
All of these sites must use tried and tested systems to publish content on the web

Why don’t these central organisations share the CMS tools they use?
A sponsored centralised solution could easily be developed using existing tools and methods that could then be shared out to any organisation wishing to use it
A system similar in design to the recent ‘NHS Mail’ project could be devised and made available as an option for organisations to use and participate in

Providing the tool centrally would also alleviate the need for 3rd party hosting and support
Such a tool could even be released as open-source software using a GPL-like licence allowing organisations to re-develop and modify to their specific needs
Ultimately this could lead to...
100s of different sites
1000s of users
Just 1 CMS

So in closing...
Fixing the NHS CMS Predicament
Use WordPress?
OR at least adopt a similar methodology and model

Set-up at Barnsley Hospital BEFORE the re-development

Set-up at Barnsley Hospital...
Old External Site
Internal Intranet
Public facing ‘www’ site
Hospital News/Events
Patient information
Board/Corporate Info
Moderated content
Internal ‘N3’ site
Staff information (news, events)
Departmental sub-sites (60 sites)
Built in-house (Classic ASP)
Un-moderated content

Internal site has yet to be updated...

Re-development project focused on the external website…

Old external website…
Developed in 2004 as a ‘quick fix’
Static HTML site
Used Dreamweaver Templates
Lacking in content
Vastly out of date
These issues led to off-shoot sites
www.bhnft.nhs.uk

Off-shoot (rebel) sites...
Barnsley PGME
Barnsley Audiology
Barnsley Dietetic and Nutrition
Barnsley Healthy Workplace
Barnsley ICT Services
Nursing in the North
North Trent Cancer Network
Barnsley Pathology Services
Staff Support Services

Example off-shoot (rebel) site...
www.barnsleyaudiology.nhs.uk

Off-shoot (rebel) sites...
Barnsley PGME
Barnsley Audiology
Barnsley Dietetic and Nutrition
Barnsley Healthy Workplace
To help maintain and streamline development of these sites and after a lengthy search I had actually procured a pretty decent open-source ASP.Net CMS:
Umbraco (www.umbraco.org)
Barnsley ICT Services
Nursing in the North
North Trent Cancer Network
Barnsley Pathology Services
Staff Support Services

Using Umbraco…
Reason for choosing Umbraco
Runs on the ASP.Net platform (requirement in an NHS environment)
Simple to use, install, maintain
Open-source
FREE
The best free ASP.Net available

Using ASP.Net…
The NHS Is a very PURE Microsoft environment which makes .NET the standard for Enterprise and Web Development

Using PHP/MySQL…
Getting PHP/MySQL in the organisation was one of the greatest challenges I faced as a web developer
In the end it came down to money….
In order to build upon the Umbraco CMS I insisted that we would require the Pro (supported) AND some expert training as I had little or no time to learn Umbracoto the required level

The problem with Umbraco…
Moving away from Umbraco
No robust support community
No funding for paid support/training (Pro version)
No knowledge on how or if it could be scaled
Long learning curve
We had finally allowed PHP/MySQL in the organisation

Losing Umbraco…
A recent Twitter on how I moved away from the Umbraco CMS once we had a strategy in place which allowed for PHP/MySQL applications to be included in our infrastructure

Losing Umbraco…
Passionate developers and a emerging community

Losing Umbraco…
Umbraco is one of the very few decent FREE ASP.Net open-source CMS’s but in my opinion it can’t compete with the WordPress experience

Reasons for re-development
Umbraco
In-house CMS (Classic ASP)
Static HTML
Inconsistency in front-end design and back end technology
This went on for a number of years before being addressed

Reasons for re-development...
Core external site was underdeveloped and out of date
Relevant Hospital content was stretched over multiple websites
The Hospital brand was not strongly reflected on any of the existing sites
No clear CMS strategy – ‘anything goes’

Reasons for re-development...
No GOOD CMS strategy
Using a mixture of
Self-built CMS tools
Static HTML
Umbraco
External Companies
Content was not centralised
No standards were in place
The whole thing was a mess….

Website Re-development Project

Project objectives...

Project objectives...
Fix everything I’ve just brought up
Re-develop the external website from the ground up
Design a theme which reflected the Hospital brand
Bring all off-shoot sites under the same umbrella
Ensure the resulting system is easy to use and expandable

The road to WordPress...
Although I’d been using and advocating WordPress for a few years it
hadn’t had any impact on my work at the hospital

Developing the new site...

Clearly defined navigation structure...
More useful and informative than the previous version

Corporate information...

Service information...

Stats on the new site...
Moved to the new domainwww.barnsleyhospital.nhs.uk
Developed in6 weeks
Hostingcosts£200 PA

334 Pages
35 Posts
10Plugins
WPv2.8
10,000k Monthlyvisitors
5 Active editors

100%
Positive feedback fromusers AND editors

WordPress Set-up…
Essential Plugins
All in One SEO Pack
Contact Form 7
Fold Page List
Role Scoper
TinyMCE Advanced
WordPress Database Backup

WordPress Set-up…
Favourite Plugins
Fold Page List
Role Scoper

WordPress Set-up…
Favourite Plugins
Fold Page List
Instantly enhances the use of pages in WordPress
Comes with a built-in breadcrumb system
Allows developers to easily query child/parent ID’s

Using Fold Page List…

WordPress Set-up…
Favourite Plugins
Role Scoper
Turns a standard WordPress installation into a multi-user CMS without the need for WPMU
Extremely advanced user role management
Allows user role management of individual post or pages
Ability to give editors their own sub-areas to work on
Easy to use interface

Using Role Scoper…

WordPress Set-up…
Favourite Plugins
Daily, weekly or monthly database backups
Option to archive or email
No hassle, it just works

Using WordPress Database Backup

The future…
Future Plans
Give every hospital service the ability to maintain their own section
Reign in more off-shoot sites that are yet to be converted
Integrate social apps – Twitter, YouTube
Implement blogs for Chief Executive and board members
Multi-language version

To conclude…
UsingWordPressWe..
Were able to develop a large website on a short deadline
Ended up with a great CMS solution
Spend hardly any money
Are confident future CMS challenges have been met
Never looked back…

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Word Press In The Health Sector

by UK WordPress community on Jul 26, 2009

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