Client Spotlight: National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions

NACHRI Thrives

The National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions is dedicated to promoting and supporting children's hospitals and health systems that are committed to providing health care to children. It does so through education, research, health promotion and advocacy. In order to function effectively, it relies on a top-notch Web site. NACHRI is able to offer world-class benefits to its members over the Web thanks to its partnership with Advanced Solutions International, and its authorized iMIS Solution Provider, Intuitive Business Concepts.

Immediate Improvement

As recently as the beginning of 2003, NACHRI had three separate, non-integrated Web sites it had to manage. There were complaints that the content on the site was old, and that members were unable to find the information they needed. The association realized that they needed to purchase a content management package. According to Associate Director of Communications Natalie Webster, “We chose ASI because they understood our needs and iMIS e-Content Manager met our needs out of the box.” NACHRI had been cautioned by other vendors that content migration could be a long and painful process, said Webster. “With ASI's help, we found this to be the easiest part. I was amazed. It was completely painless.”

After the site launch, NACHRI saw an immediate increase in Web staff efficiency, as other staff were trained and started contributing to content processing using e-Content Manager. “We are able to publish much more material in less time, and keep better track of it. We had a growing demand for the Web to deliver more member services, and we would have had to hire at least two additional staff if we didn't have this new software,” said Webster.

Personal Member Service

Through e-Content Manager, NACHRI has been able to personalize the content delivered to members. Surveys revealed that members were looking for the Web site to provide important news regarding children's hospitals. NACHRI now uses e-Content Manager to share new stories relating to children's hospitals with its members every morning.

NACHRI is also able to offer different communities for different member groups. There are now communities where different members can go and find resources and news important to them based on their specific profession or on areas of medicine that are of specific interest to them.

The Web site redesign has allowed NACHRI to give its member hospitals the ability to have individual Web sites linked to the main NACHRI site. The basic information from member hospitals is taken from iMIS, and NACHRI allows each to update its section of the Web site to include fully searchable hospital profiles and staff directories accessible to other members.

Individuals, like the member hospitals they work for, can also update their information online and it's written directly to the iMIS database. “Members find this is one of the most valuable tools on the site,” said Webster, “and, because it's tied directly to the backend database, it requires virtually no maintenance from our Web staff or membership staff.”

Cost-Effectiveness

NACHRI has been able to save a great deal of money since its Web site redesign. The association is now able to send out e-mails that take the place of brochures and weekly mailings, leading to a dramatic reduction in printing and postage costs.

NACHRI is also now able to offer premium service programs to select members, and limit access to certain portions of the Web site based on subscriptions or enrollment in fee-for-service programs, providing additional control over content dissemination and creating a new revenue stream for the association. Webster said, “Since we charge a fee for some services, it is important that we be able to restrict access to content based on a person's activities as we track them in iMIS. For example, we might want to restrict content to a board or council or to participants in our Grants Opportunities Project.”

In addition to targeted content delivered via the NACHRI Web site, users can also sign-up for targeted email content alerts, where they select just the content types and topics they wish to receive. This also happens automatically with no staff maintenance required.

The Future

One of the prime factors that attracted NACHRI was the stability of ASI and the product. “It meant a lot to us that we don't have to worry about ASI being a small shop that will disappear shortly,” said Webster. “We know that we're going to continue to get top-notch service from both our AiSP, Intuitive Business Concepts, and ASI, for years to come. They're with us for the long haul.”