Hospital's Websites and Virtual Health Support Community- Cross-cultural Contribution to the Issue

摘要

This paper aims to address three major issues related to virtual "communities of the sick": The first being whether hospitals' websites can create virtual "communities of the sick" in different cultures, Secondly, if so, how? Finally, how is it possible, using so called global benchmarking, to improve services related to virtual health communities available on websites of hospitals? The rhetorical approach as a research methodology is used to analyze the information collected through websites of three selected hospitals: Apollo Hospital (India). KingNet Second Opinion Web-Hospital (Taiwan). Brodnowski Hospital (Poland). The situation of the last of these (which is characterized by a commercialization process) is treated as a starting point for the analysis. The rhetorical case studies are enriched by short descriptions of health care systems in the afore mentioned countries. Some suggestions on global benchmarking occur, in accordance to the use of hospitals' websites for creating "communities of the sick", as well as questions for discussion which can be founding the conclusion.