Hospitals Linked: Lexical Isomorphism on the Web

• In Event: 3129 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 23. Healthcare Practices and Policies

Abstract

Almost every hospital in the United States has a website. These sites operate as the new “front door” for business, where patients are introduced to a facility, find their doctor, access health records, and pay bills. Less is known, however, about how organizations systematically choose to design and populate their sites. Neoinstitutional theory would suggest that these sites should tend to look the same, as hospitals mimic each other and respond coercive pressures. It is possible, however, that websites offer an avenue for differentiation—where a hospital may not offer something entirely new but may significantly alter a site to assert its individual differences. The spread of organizational differences and similarities, in this case, might be better explained by theories of diffusion. These sites thus provide an entirely new way to test the explanatory powers of these two theories in the online sphere. This paper analyzes hospital website dropdown menu similarities using network techniques. Hospital network and an emphasis on specialty services were found to be better predictors of website similarity than ownership type, hospital size, or hospital revenue. These findings suggest that hospitals vary, but along different lines than expected.

Author

• Allison Roberts, Emory University