Bringing fresh, vibrant life to Nashville’s original City Hospital
Enhancing User Experience with a Brand and Usability Revamp
Nashville General Hospital (NGH), the city’s safety-net hospital since 1890, provides compassionate, high-quality care to patients regardless of income or background. As a cornerstone of public health in Nashville, the hospital relies on its website as an essential tool to fulfill this mission — connecting patients, families, and the community with clear information, access to services, and resources for better health.
NGH’s digital presence has been fragmented across a confusing mix of sites and brands, weakening the hospital’s identity and complicating navigation for patients. By The Way Labs, a digital partner since 2019, rebuilt the web platform on Drupal to unify these properties under a single NGH umbrella. The result is a robust, scalable site that not only improves the patient experience through streamlined navigation but also empowers hospital staff with modern administrative tools. Ongoing development keeps the site secure, current, and fully aligned with NGH’s marketing and community engagement initiatives.
Approach & Collaboration
Phased Transformation for Long-Term Growth
- Consolidated multiple properties into NashvilleGeneral.org, unifying branding, navigation, and SEO.
- Refactored site architecture to streamline patient journeys, making service lines, physicians, and clinics easy to navigate.
- Interviewed service line stakeholders to build comprehensive, user-friendly pages that clearly explain conditions, treatments, and services.
- Developed role-based administrative tools for managing clinical trial listings, provider profiles, and department content.
- Built ancillary sites for affiliated programs and initiatives
Results
From Fragmentation to Cohesion
- Delivered a unified digital home that reinforces NGH’s role as Nashville’s city hospital.
- Improved patient experience through intuitive navigation, structured content, and streamlined access to the HealtheLife Patient Portal.
- Empowered hospital staff with robust admin tools to keep physician, service line, and clinical trial content accurate and up-to-date.
- Positioned NGH for growth with a scalable Drupal 10 platform that can accommodate future expansions and campaigns.
Visual Storytelling
Recognizing the importance of authentic imagery, we partnered with Andrea Behrends Photography to conduct a full photoshoot at Nashville General Hospital. The resulting portraits of staff, patients, and facilities bring warmth and credibility to the site, replacing generic visuals with real faces and places. To support new initiatives and campaigns, we also curate high-quality stock imagery that complements the hospital’s brand and extends the visual toolkit.
Role-based Administrative Tools
By The Way Labs developed role-based dashboards and content types that give NGH staff direct control over critical areas of the site. From updating provider profiles and clinical trial listings to managing department and service line pages, these tools reduce reliance on external vendors and ensure accurate, timely information for patients and families. Dennis: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uYu77jYH2VPTIyD2VA4wRW6eKGbKur9tgtAQLgPCRqo/edit?usp=sharing
Service Line Narratives
To ensure patients could clearly understand and navigate NGH’s broad range of care, we collaborated directly with service line leaders to develop comprehensive, easy-to-read pages for each department. These narratives highlight conditions treated, available services, and provider expertise — giving patients the confidence to make informed decisions while strengthening NGH’s reputation for quality care.
By The Way Labs recently helped to update our hospital’s website. I was new in my role and happy to have the expertise and partnership of Jon and By The Way Labs for this very important project. The process was collaborative and seamless and at a fair price. Jon was responsive and knowledgeable and provided good industry insights that guided us to a much better looking website and user experience.