Healthcare intranets: how to choose the right solution

A study of 23,000 medical malpractice lawsuits filed between 2009 and 2013 found that 7,000 could be attributed to communication failures. These resulted in $1.7 billion in malpractice claims and almost 2,000 preventable deaths. 

Poor communication is a problem in any industry. But in healthcare, it can have disastrous effects. So how can healthcare organizations improve communications and avoid these terrible consequences? 

One solution is to implement an employee intranet. In this article, we’ll discuss five reasons why a healthcare intranet could be crucial to the success of your organization — plus our tips for finding the right solution. 

5 reasons healthcare organizations need intranets

An intranet provides employees with easy, on-demand access to all the information they need to do their jobs. Often, they can access this information from the mobile device that’s already in their pocket. This not only makes their lives easier, but it can also result in dramatic improvements to patient satisfaction, and even health outcomes. 

Here are five reasons your healthcare organization needs an employee intranet.

To save time by putting useful information in one place

In a healthcare organization, every team, department, and location has a ton of information to deal with. They also probably waste time dealing with the same, repeated questions day after day. With a healthcare intranet, every department can create its own custom page and insert things like: 

• A link to the department’s shared Google drive 
• An embedded calendar showing important dates
• User cards of the department’s key players
• Direct links to files that employees need to access frequently

When each department has its own page, that department is fully in control of the content. This means fewer misunderstandings and miscommunications, and less wasted time. 

To create a better experience for patients 

Patient care should be the priority for all healthcare organizations — and your healthcare intranet could be the key to creating a more positive patient experience. Here are a few reasons why: 

Better collaboration

When patients are seen by multiple different practitioners, decision-makers might not have all of the information they need to understand the full picture. An intranet can bring all the necessary information about each patient together, and allow different professionals to collaborate — even when they don’t have time to speak to each other. 

Happier, more engaged employees

An employee intranet can help your employees to feel more connected to your organization, and inspired to perform their best work. And when employees are more engaged, patient care improves. As just one example, a 2005 Gallup poll found that more engaged nurses led to fewer medical errors, and lower patient mortality. 

Online access to training and schedules

Healthcare employees need to keep their knowledge up to date, but managing training schedules can be tricky when you only have limited time to spare. Healthcare intranets let you create a training calendar and add upcoming training courses. That way, busy employees can browse them and sign up for the relevant ones in just a few minutes.  

To improve staff communication

Doctors, nurses, and other caregivers waste an average of 45 minutes every day because of inefficient communication systems. And this inefficiency costs US hospitals more than $8.3 billion every year. Medical professionals in all fields must find ways of communicating and collaborating with each other across different functions — and an intranet could be the solution. 

One feature to look for in a healthcare intranet is an employee directory, which allows employees to search for colleagues by name, department, or specialism across the entire organisation. They can then get in touch with them right within the application — so expert advice is never more than a few clicks away. 

To act as a one-stop-shop for resources 

A properly structured healthcare intranet acts as a repository for all of the information, documents and resources that your employees need to do their jobs. That means that employees can turn up the information they need in seconds, especially if your intranet is a modern one with a powerful search function. 

Plus, if you opt for an intranet solution with a mobile app, your employees will literally be carrying your organization’s entire knowledge base in their pocket. That’s pretty powerful. 

To facilitate quick and secure information sharing 

Healthcare professionals are busy. That means that they need quick and efficient ways of sharing information — otherwise, it will simply sit in silos. However, healthcare organizations also handle a lot of sensitive data, so it’s also vital that information is shared securely. 

Modern intranets come with communication and knowledge-sharing features that allow employees to easily share ideas and information. Many also have integrations with apps like Google Drive or Microsoft SharePoint, which makes it even easier to distribute and organize files and resources.

And the best solutions come with top-of-the-line security specs too. Happeo, for example, is ISO 27001 certified, and fully GDPR compliant. We take security as seriously as you do, and do everything we can to keep your information safe. 

Common problems with healthcare intranets

Many intranet platforms are just not set up for healthcare organizations. When you’re looking for a healthcare intranet solution, be sure to avoid intranets that are: 

• Not accessible on mobile: If you want your intranet to be effective with doctors and other healthcare professionals, you need to meet them where they are. That means finding a solution with a mobile app. 
• Not easy to use: Busy healthcare employees don’t have much time to spend figuring out how your intranet works. You need a solution that’s intuitive, simple, and easy to navigate. 
• Not engaging: To ensure your busy employees actually use your intranet, look for solutions that are engaging and fun to use — a social media-like interface can help with this.

Healthcare intranet examples

Here are some examples of healthcare organizations that are taking full advantage of Happeo’s intranet solution. 

Emergency Physicians of Tidewater: EPT

Emergency Physicians of Tidewater (EPT) is a private group of emergency physicians. Before using Happeo, EPT had an old-style static intranet, which was poorly used and made it difficult to find information. EPT’s must-haves for an intranet platform were: 

• Instant notifications
• A mobile app 
• A people directory
• Secure document storage

EPT needed a tool that would bring together their back office staff with their very busy physicians — and they found Happeo. Game-changing features included the social media-like mobile app. 

Leightons Opticians 

Leightons Opticians is a family-run network of opticians and hearing care providers in England. Before Happeo, Leightons had an on-premise intranet, but this became difficult to use when more employees began working from home in 2020. 

Leightons needed an intranet that would be accessible by all, and were keen to find a solution with a native Google Workspace integration that would be easy to use and able to launch fast. Enter Happeo! Since launching their intranet, Leightons have fully embraced Happeo as their organization’s single source of truth, and as a place where employees can give shoutouts and support each other. 

MINT Dentistry 

MINT Dentistry is a group of over 60 dental surgeries in the Dallas and Houston area. The group needed an intranet platform that could bring together employees from different locations and get them excited about work. 

Since launching, the company has seen a huge increase in cross-location communication. Happeo has become the homepage for every computer in the business — the place where employees start and end their days. Plus, the mobile app and push notifications help MINT Dentistry to keep deskless clinicians in the loop. 

Choosing the right healthcare intranet 

When you’re choosing a healthcare intranet, you need to make sure it includes all the features and functionality that you need. If you’re not sure where to start, here are some features to look out for when you’re shopping around:

• A mobile app: Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals don’t spend their days on computers — but they do almost certainly have a smartphone in their pocket. An intranet app gives them access to all the information they need, wherever they are.
• A powerful search engine: A robust search function means employees will be able to stop wasting time asking for information, and simply go and find it themselves.
• An employee directory: This helps ensure everyone knows who everyone is, and makes it super easy to find the right person when you have a question — leading to smoother, more effective collaboration.
• Appropriate security standards: In healthcare, you need to know the information you’re putting on your intranet is safe and secure. Don’t settle for an intranet provider that doesn’t take security as seriously as you do.
• Collaborative channels: Better communication means better collaboration, which means better patient care. Look for healthcare intranet solutions that include collaborative features like secure channels where employees can share ideas and connect with each other.

An intranet helps improve communication by providing employees with easy, on-demand access to crucial information and resources, which directly addresses the severe consequences of communication failures in healthcare. Research shows that communication breakdowns are a major issue; for instance, a study of 23,000 medical malpractice lawsuits attributed 7,000 cases to communication failures, resulting in $1.7 billion in claims and nearly 2,000 preventable deaths. By introducing a modern intranet, organisations can establish a single source of truth that mitigates these risks.

The platform saves time by allowing individual departments to build custom pages where they can host shared drives, embedded calendars, key contact cards, and frequent links. This department-level control minimises misunderstandings. Furthermore, clinical staff can access this centralised hub from mobile devices. This easy access is vital since healthcare professionals waste an average of 45 minutes daily due to inefficient systems, costing US hospitals over $8.3 billion annually.

Finally, an intranet boosts the overall patient experience by enhancing collaboration and employee engagement. When medical staff are better connected, patient care improves. A Gallup poll linked higher nurse engagement to fewer medical errors and lower patient mortality. Additionally, features like training calendars allow busy staff to sign up for professional development in minutes, keeping their skills up to date.

When choosing a healthcare intranet, organisations must select a platform with specific features that cater to a busy, mobile, and highly regulated environment. First and foremost, a mobile application is essential because doctors, nurses, and deskless clinicians rarely spend their shifts sitting in front of traditional computers. A mobile app ensures they have the organisation’s entire knowledge base and communication channels directly in their pockets, meeting them wherever they are.

Secondly, the platform must feature a powerful search engine and an employee directory. A robust search tool allows staff to find vital documents and resources in seconds, eliminating time wasted searching or asking colleagues. Meanwhile, an interactive directory enables employees to search for colleagues by name, department, or specialism, facilitating immediate collaboration. This ensures that expert advice is always just a few clicks away, allowing staff to communicate across different functions.

Lastly, the intranet must possess appropriate security standards and intuitive collaborative channels. Since healthcare organisations handle highly sensitive data, the provider must take security seriously. For instance, platforms like Happeo offer top-of-the-line security specifications, being fully GDPR compliant and ISO 27001 certified. Additionally, the interface must be engaging and simple to navigate. Incorporating collaborative channels with a social media-like interface encourages adoption among busy employees who do not have time to learn complex, non-intuitive software.

Real-world examples show that diverse healthcare organisations have successfully transformed their internal communication and operations by implementing Happeo’s intranet solution. For instance, Emergency Physicians of Tidewater (EPT), a private group of emergency physicians, previously struggled with a static, underutilised intranet that made finding information difficult. They transitioned to Happeo to unite their back-office staff with busy on-duty physicians. By leveraging essential features like instant notifications, a people directory, secure document storage, and a social-media-like mobile app, they successfully closed their communication gap.

Another success story is Leightons Opticians, a family-run network of opticians and hearing care providers in England. When more employees began working from home in 2020, their existing on-premise intranet became highly difficult to use. They required an accessible, rapidly deployable solution with native Google Workspace integration. Since launching Happeo, the platform has become their absolute single source of truth, as well as a positive space where staff members can easily share public shoutouts and support one another.

Similarly, MINT Dentistry, which operates over 60 dental surgeries in Houston and Dallas, used the intranet to connect employees across multiple locations. To drive alignment, the company made the platform the default homepage on every computer. This strategy has dramatically boosted cross-location communication. By utilising the mobile app and push notifications, they successfully keep their deskless clinicians fully informed and engaged, starting and ending their working days in one unified digital home.