Online health: hospitals connecting with patients in cyberspace.

• Author: Lewers, Christine
• Position: Executive Health - New network director, eBusiness for Community Health Network

Dan Rench's 25 year health-care career has taken him from critical-care nursing to network director of eBusiness for Community Health Network in Indianapolis.

Rench says his dual experiences are perfectly blended in "MyCommunity" (www.eCommunity.com), the network's consumer portal that lets members chat with a nurse. preregister for hospital admission or classes, complete online health-risk appraisals, research treatments, refill prescriptions and more.

"We're using Internet technology to bring patients and our services and clinicians closer together," says Rench. "It's not just to get patients through the system quickly. It's to give them more quality time in an efficient manner."

Hospitals throughout the state are taking a similar approach. In a time when budgets are shrinking and health-care costs are rising, many hospitals are turning to the Internet for money-saving ways to build patient relationships and boost efficiency. At the same time, consumer and computers-saving baby boomers are hitting hospital Web sites to meet many of their health care needs.

Community is leading the way in two-way Web communication with patients. In 2002, Hospital and Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association, recognized Community with three "Most Wired" awards. In addition, Community received "Health Care Strategies" and "Trends 2002" awards for best eBusiness and best interactive site. The network operates four tertiary care hospitals, six immediate care centers, three nursing homes and a number of other health care facilities throughout central Indiana.

A big part of the success of Community's Web site is its online operators, who can give patients guided tours through eCommunity.com, providing them with the ability to see, hear and read about Community's services, programs and physicians. These operators can also answer questions about the network's facilities or provide maps to patients on their way to the hospital, day or night.

Nurses, too, are available online between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. to answer health-related questions. Although Community has offered nurse chats to Indiana residents since 2001, in May this year the hospital relaunched the service as part of "MyCommunity" to help handle volume. Indiana residents who agree to receive health-care updates relating to their interests can subscribe to "MyCommunity."

Other online features include a partnership with Amazon.com that allows numbers to purchase books related to their...