Towards a Comprehensive Quality Evaluation Model for Hospital Websites

BACKGROUND: Hospital websites are important sources for patients to access health information. AIM: The purpose of this study was to develop the quality evaluation model for hospital websites. METHODS: The quantitative study was conducted through the modified Delphi method in 2014-2015. The population of the study includes 10 experts were chosen by targeting non-randomized method. A questionnaire was prepared based on the prototype that was developed by research papers and related models. The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by face validity and CVI and CVR estimation. Reliability was obtained by split-half method (α = 0.8). Experts’ opinions were collected through interview. Then, their frequency and percentage were determined. Items with options completely agree and agree over 75% was approved, items below 50% were removed, and items 50%–75% were removed after three interviews repetitions. RESULTS: Most of the experts agreed about the pleasant and harmonious colors, the readable and consistent fonts (100%). The least frequency was allocated to correct grammar and words, support for multilingual and rapidly changing of displaying pages in the website with a frequency of 2 (20%). CONCLUSION: The minimum qualitative criteria for a website are usability, efficiency, user friendly, service, reliability and interaction.