The Client

Vancouver Coastal Health is a regional health authority that provides health care services to over 1 million residents living in Vancouver, the North Shore, Richmond, the Sea-to-Sky Highway, Sunshine Coast, Bella Bella, Bella Coola the Central Coast and the surrounding areas. Ranked as one of BC's top 50 employers and recognized amongst the winners of the 2009 Excellence in Healthcare Award, Vancouver Coastal Health continues to prove itself as one of Canada's most valuable health care providers.

The Challenge

In 2007, Vancouver Coastal Health approached Backbone for a complete website re-design. At the time, the existing VCH website was still using static HTML pages that needed to be maintained by in-house IT staff. This was a major impediment that would be greatly simplified if staff could handle their own content updates. Additionally, the new site was to be integrated with information from HealthLink BC's 8-1-1 telephone- and web-based medical information system - a task complicated by the fact that the database was developed by a third party in a proprietary format.

The Solution

Backbone began by immediately deploying its Expression website management framework and setting up the site's architecture. This allowed VCH staff to access Expression, get trained on its interface, and develop content for the new website even before the site design was complete. Backbone then began developing and testing an 8-1-1 database integration module for Expression. Although the 8-1-1 database used a proprietary structure with no available application programming interface (API), Backbone's development team was able to sync to the database and translate it into a much more flexible format that can be dynamically incorporated into any site content, whether DHTML, XML, or Flash.

The Result

Impressed by the efficacy of Expression and the ingenuity of the 8-1-1 integration system, VCH expanded the project to include its various intranet sites and subdomains. What began as a single site redesign became a project that entirely changed the way VCH represented itself on the web. Meanwhile, Backbone stayed committed to the project and remained within budget even as project deliverables were changing and being added rapidly. Strong commitment and enduring perseverance were the keys to successfully meeting and exceeding the expectations of an organization as large and widespread as Vancouver Coastal Health.