Karlovac home health care facility
Client: Karlovac Home Health Care Facility
Category: Public sector, healthcare
Technology: WordPress, PHP, HTML/CSS, JavaScript
About the client:
The Karlovac Home Health Care Institution is a public health institution that provides professional health care to the citizens of Karlovac County in their homes and in the outpatient clinic. The institution's scope of activity includes three areas — home health care, physical therapy, and health counseling. Physical therapy includes kinesitherapy and medical gymnastics, mechanotherapy, electrotherapy, Bobath therapy for people with neurological impairments, and rental of TENS devices for home use. The target population is patients who, due to illness, injury, or old age, need professional medical care without going to a hospital or outpatient clinic — which makes this institution a particularly important link in the primary health care system.
Project description:
An institution that provides home health care has a specific communication need — its users are often elderly people, people with chronic illnesses or their caregivers who are not always in the best psychophysical situation when they seek help. The digital presence must be extremely clear, transparent and accessible — without complications, without technical barriers and without confusing navigation. In addition, as a public health institution with a long tradition, the Institution is obliged to extensive legal requirements for public disclosure of data — from financial plans and reports dating back to 2014, to minutes of board meetings, tenders, contract registers and work programs.
Content architecture and navigation
The information architecture of the site had to reconcile two completely different user needs. On the one hand, citizens and patients looking for information about services, opening hours and contact — for them the site had to be as simple and fast as possible. On the other hand, an extensive section on access to information with dozens of categories of legally required documents — financial plans by year from 2014 onwards, financial reports, minutes of board meetings, invitations to meetings, attendance at meetings, public procurement, simple procurement, contract register, annual reports, general acts and decisions. All of this had to be organized in a logical and clear structure that does not create obstacles for any group of users.
View services
Each physical therapy service has its own page with a clear explanation of what it is, who it is for, and what benefits it provides — in written language understandable to patients without medical knowledge. Home health care services are particularly highlighted with leaflets that help potential users and their families understand what to expect from the service.
Digital Accessibility (WCAG)
The implementation of digital accessibility in this project was of particular importance — the institution's target audience includes older people and people with disabilities, who are the most frequent users of assistive technologies and for whom accessibility is not an option but a necessity. The implementation included semantically correct HTML, appropriate color contrast according to the WCAG AA standard, full keyboard navigability, ARIA tags for interactive elements and navigation structures, properly labeled contact forms, and text alternatives for all visual content. A digital accessibility statement was published on the website in accordance with legal obligations.
News and documents system
The institution actively uses the site to publish news, announcements, and legally binding documents. The CMS is set up so that administrative staff can independently publish new documents, update tenders, and add news — which is especially important for an institution that regularly publishes meeting invitations, minutes, and tender documentation.
Responsiveness
The site is fully responsive and adapted to all devices, with special attention to the readability and size of interactive elements on smaller screens — which is particularly relevant for the target group of older users.
Challenges
The biggest challenge was the sheer depth and breadth of legally required public documents — financial plans and reports going back more than a decade, multiple procurement categories, contract registers, and annual reports had to be organized in a way that was easy to search and navigate without overwhelming or confusing the average user who came to the site for completely different information. At the same time, accessibility was a particularly challenging task on this project — an institution whose primary target group is the elderly and people with disabilities had to have a digital presence that did not create any barriers for these users.
Result
A clear, functional and accessible WordPress website was delivered to the Karlovac Home Health Care Institution as a reliable digital information service for patients, caregivers and the public. The website meets legal obligations for digital accessibility and transparency of public data, and the administrative staff independently updates the content and publishes legally required documentation.
