Sector(s)
The Sherbrooke Health Expertise Center (CESS), owner of the MSI platform known as "Online Care Procedures (OCP)," is dedicated to enhancing the quality and accessibility of healthcare information. This digital platform serves as a vital tool for healthcare professionals who need quick access to reliable information to provide the best care possible.
This is a private portal, only member organisations can see the authenticated portion of the portal.
The mission of the CESS is to empower healthcare establishments with best practices and standardized procedures, enabling better patient outcomes and streamlined healthcare delivery. However, the platform required significant improvements to better serve its users' evolving needs, particularly those of nurses and other healthcare professionals who face time constraints and require on-demand access to up-to-date healthcare procedures.
To address these challenges, CESS renewed its partnership with Symetris, a trusted collaborator since 2015, to upgrade and redesign the OCP platform. The goal was to leverage the latest technologies to create a more user-friendly, efficient, and accessible platform that enhances performance, security, and usability across all devices.
Complex Navigation and Information Overload
The existing OCP platform had a cumbersome navigation system that made it difficult for healthcare professionals to quickly find critical healthcare information, leading to wasted time and frustration, especially in high-pressure environments where efficiency is essential. Previously, some fields of information were not searchable, forcing nurses to use broad search terms and manually sift through results using workarounds like control-f, which was inefficient.
To address these issues, Symetris redesigned the platform’s navigation structure to be more intuitive and streamlined. We also revamped the search functionality by improving data indexing, enabling more advanced searches, and refining taxonomies. The updated system provides more dynamic filters, showing how many results are available per filter type, while also introducing visual cues to highlight relevant keywords in search results. These enhancements allow users to find the information they need more efficiently, even with layered permission systems that control access to specific content. The improvements resulted in a significant reduction in the time spent searching for information, boosting user engagement and allowing healthcare professionals to dedicate more time to patient care.
Limited Mobile Access and Usability
Healthcare professionals often need quick access to information while on the go, but the previous platform did not support a fully functional mobile experience. This limitation hindered the usability of the platform, particularly for those relying on mobile devices in various healthcare settings. Symetris addressed this by implementing a responsive design, ensuring that the platform functioned seamlessly across all devices, including smartphones and tablets. The new mobile-optimized experience enhanced accessibility and usability, leading to a 60% increase in mobile traffic and a 35% reduction in bounce rates, demonstrating more effective engagement with mobile users.
Rigid IT Infrastructure Requirements
Many healthcare institutions operate within rigid, outdated government IT environments that present unique challenges for platform compatibility and security. Symetris addressed this by optimizing the platform to work efficiently within these diverse environments, ensuring smooth integration and user adoption.
Enhancing Performance and Scalability with Advanced Hosting Solutions
By upgrading to the Drupal 10 platform with Symetris and leveraging Pantheon's infrastructure, the CESS has successfully transformed the OCP platform into a more efficient, reliable, and accessible tool. This partnership has enabled the CESS to continue its mission of delivering high-quality healthcare information, supporting healthcare professionals in providing better care and outcomes for patients.
Back to topAdvanced Content Management Capabilities
Drupal is unparalleled when it comes to managing complex content structures—making it an ideal choice for the CESS project.
- Custom content types, Symetris was able to restructure clinical procedures into a more modular, organized, and accessible format, tailored to the specific workflows of healthcare professionals.
- Content personalization was a critical requirement for this platform. Leveraging Drupal’s robust Content API enabled the creation of dynamic, user-specific experiences that align with each healthcare professional’s role and access level.
- Enhanced search capabilities—powered by Apache Solr and refined taxonomy structures—delivered faster, more accurate results, allowing users to quickly find the procedures and information they need.
Flexible and Secure Architecture
Drupal's flexibility allowed Symetris to build a platform compatible with government IT constraints, where environments can be restrictive. Drupal is well-known for its security, compliance readiness, and ability to work with outdated systems when necessary.
Mobile-First Responsive Design
While the previous OCP was limited on mobile, Drupal’s theming and front-end flexibility allowed Symetris to implement a fully responsive user experience, drastically improving mobile engagement (+60% traffic, -35% bounce rate).
Robust Role-Based Access Control
Drupal’s native user roles and permissions system allowed the team to implement layered access to procedures based on user type or institution—essential in a healthcare setting where not all users can access all content.
Back to top
Technical Specifications
Drupal version:
