Assessing the Progress of Portuguese Hospitals’ Online Services

Online health services provision is the future of heath sector globally. Hospitals that do not make the transition from paper-based systems to electronic may swiftly undermine their chances of sustaining competitiveness in the market and efficiency towards their patients. This paper applies Hospital Online Service Index (HOSPI) assessment methodology to analyse progress in Portuguese hospitals’ migration to a digital state. It employs data from an assessment conducted in 2021 to examine online health services provision. The article compares the results of that assessment to a previous one in 2019 and finds that Portuguese hospitals’ websites remain in a stable status with slight progress in administration procedures, navigability, usability and readability aspects. The paper also suggests possible steps that could be considered, by Portuguese hospitals, towards covering the existing gaps.