Redesigned HospitalConnect Tailored for Today's User; American Hospital Association Launches Final Version of Health Leadership Portal Featuring Speed, Convenience and HospitalFinder.

Health/Medical Writers

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 18, 2003

The American Hospital Association (AHA) today formally announced HospitalConnect(TM), a web portal uniting 50 Internet sites from 22 organizations that serve health care providers. The prototype for HospitalConnect went live in July for fine-tuning and adjusting. The redesign is the final step in HospitalConnect's development and can be found at www.hospitalconnect.com.

For more than a year, AHA assessed the Internet and technology needs of members and others who use AHA and AHA-related Web sites. The redesigned HospitalConnect will better serve this diverse audience and enable health leaders to better share ideas and innovations. The new design of HospitalConnect features an interactive hospital finder that enables users to find the closest hospitals to any address in the U.S. and provides maps showing their locations. The redesigned front page includes guides to HIPAA, disaster readiness and other key issues. The site also provides customizable headlines and a powerful search engine.

The portal contains critical data, such as regulatory information, best practices, research, educational materials, news and products to the entire health care field by connecting multiple health care Web sites.

"The new look of HospitalConnect is built around the needs of users and will make it faster and more convenient for them to access information," said Herman Baumann, AHA's executive director for strategic development. "By uniting these 50 web sites the portal enables users to access the full library of content provided by AHA and its affiliates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year."

Web sites within HospitalConnect share a common hardware and software platform developed in collaboration with leading technology partners. Qwest Communications provided design and development support and is hosting and managing the portal in its Chicago CyberCenter(SM) HospitalConnect leverages the broad spectrum of Sun's computing platform, including Sun ONE Portal Server, Sun ONE Application Server, Sun ONE Directory Server, Sun ONE Web Server, Sun ONE Messaging Server, Sun Enterprise servers and Sun StorEdge systems running the Solaris(TM) 8 Operating Environment. The Sun ONE platform provides a flexible and reliable platform that allows IT to eliminate compatibility issues each time a new application or service is added. Interwoven TeamSite software ensures content is automatically managed and distributed, allowing business-critical information to be moved, rerouted, and grouped to meet the needs of each user. Verity K2 Catalog's advanced search and classification capabilities allow members to efficiently organize and find the information they need. Content, design templates and registration information reside in a powerful Oracle database.

HospitalConnect benefits include:

-- An interactive hospital finder,

-- streamlined registration process,

-- a powerful search engine,

-- improved chat capabilities

-- an online store,

-- access to special members-only content and features,

-- and the latest advocacy reports, news articles and regulatory

information on health care - custom-edited to meet the user's

specific interests.

All sites participating in HospitalConnect will continue to exist independently but now share a search engine, database and content manager in addition to hardware and bandwidth.

About the AHA

The AHA is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the health improvement of their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, which includes almost 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and 37,000 individual members. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, visit the AHA Web site at www.aha.org.