In honor of Geonetric’s 25th anniversary, we’re sharing the stories and successes of just a few of our healthcare clients across the United States. Some have been with us for decades, others just a few years; some are major health systems, others just one standalone hospital. But one common thread ties them all together: Geonetric has helped them take their digital marketing programs to new heights.
Rutland Regional Medical Center is a 144-bed hospital in Rutland, VT, serving patients in southern and central Vermont and eastern New York. It is the second-largest hospital and one of the largest employers in the area, employing more than 1,800 people and offering 43 areas of specialty.
We began working with Rutland Regional in September 2011, when the hospital was in need of a partner to redesign its website.
“We had a dated website that didn’t function well, and the organization made the decision to do a complete overhaul and redo of our website,” explained Rowan Muelling-Auer, Rutland Regional’s Web & Production Specialist. “We try to keep our dollars in our community and our geographic location as much as we can, but after doing a lot of research, we decided to look for a vendor with an expertise in healthcare which brought us to Geonetric.”
In the years since, we’ve worked with the Rutland Regional team on various projects centered around conveying that patients didn’t need to leave the area to get the best medical care possible — world-class physicians were located right in their own backyard in Rutland.
Recent work
The Rutland Regional site’s most recent update took place in 2023, with a focus on showcasing the hospital’s brand, services and physicians. Prior to that, the last Rutland Regional redesign took place in 2016, meaning the site was starting to become outdated from both a design and a functionality perspective. Website design technology had greatly improved and opened up new possibilities since then, making it the perfect time to update the site’s templates and color palettes as well.
Features like the new He@lthy Together blog, advanced search function, and multiple pathways to the provider directory helped build both patient and staff trust in the Rutland Regional brand.
Collaboration between Geonetric and Rutland Regional kept the project on track, and helped set the site up for success after its June 2023 launch.
“[With] the redesign, there was a great amount of collaboration that went into that project that ultimately led to that being so successful,” explained Client Services Director Ashley Nost. “That’s a project that just worked well from start to finish.”
In the months following the initial launch of the redesigned site, Rutland Regional saw a 44% increase in the engagement rate of its provider profile pages, a 42.5% increase in the engagement rate of its service line pages, and a 16.7% increase in total sessions for its location profile pages.
One major aspect of the redesign that stands out to Muelling-Auer was the site design itself, which brought to life Rutland Regional’s branding through elements that “really stand out as ours.”
“Christina [Hoge, design director] did such a beautiful job taking our branding and our materials and making it into a website that is recognizably us while also still feeling fresh and current and really attractive,” she said.
Muelling-Auer has heard from internal staff, volunteers and community members alike that the new site isn’t just warm and engaging but easier to navigate as well.
“I’ve certainly heard from outside of our organization where people are saying, ‘You know, I could never find this before, and now I can.’ It’s pretty great.”
Leveraging VitalSite®
Rutland Regional has also established itself as a “super user” of our VitalSite® content management system. With a small in-house team, Rutland Regional needs to be able to do as much site maintenance as it can on their own, and VitalSite empowers Muelling-Auer to do just that through features like branded page templates and content scheduling.
“What I really enjoy about VitalSite is how intuitive it is. It allows you a lot more flexibility in terms of how you build content, and I think it ultimately just makes it better for end users,” Muelling-Auer explained. “Especially in a role like mine where I’m the only person in my organization who does anything with VitalSite, having the ability to publish content in advance and know it’s going to appear when I need it to be is just one example of a really helpful tool that Geonetric’s built.”
Muelling-Auer acknowledges that even when she runs into a capability VitalSite doesn’t have yet, the Geonetric team is on hand to listen to her concerns.
“They hear your problems; they hear the things that you would like to see. They work on building those into future planning for the CMS,” she said. “That’s something that’s worth its weight in gold. No program is going to do everything, but when you have a team behind you who is dedicated to making you successful, that’s everything right there.”
Redesign recognition
Rutland Regional’s 2023 redesign earned a Platinum Award for Best Website Redesign at the 2023 MarCom Awards, as well as a Silver Award for Best Overall Internet Site and a Gold Award for Best Provider Directory in the 2023 eHealthcare Leadership Awards.
Our work with Rutland Regional also earned an Outstanding Achievement award in the 2017 Interactive Media Awards.
A commitment to customer success
Muelling-Auer credits Rutland Regional’s nearly 13 years of partnership with Geonetric to the relationships she’s been able to build with the team handling her account and the open communication they’ve established.
“My constant refrain when it comes to Geonetric is the extraordinary customer service, day in and day out. It really makes a relationship feel like it matters between both parties,” she said.
Another benefit Rutland Regional has enjoyed since working with Geonetric is knowing there’s a team working behind the scenes to react to any changes in analytics, HIPAA regulations, marketing technology, and the ever-evolving state of the digital landscape.
“I don’t think you can stress enough how important that is for the kind of company that Geonetric is,” Muelling-Auer explained. “Whether it’s how responsive websites are changing, the switch over to GA4, changing rules around HIPAA — it’s all of those parts and pieces that really help to make Geonetric a partner in your digital management of your assets and your presence online.”
Ready to experience the Geonetric difference?
If your organization could use a digital partner with 25 years of experience, a healthcare-specific content management system, and a team that’s always keeping tabs on the latest in healthcare digital marketing, let’s talk. Contact Geonetric today to learn more about how we can help your organization!