Mackinac Straits Health System

Objective: Connecting a remote region to exceptional care

Mackinac Straits Health System is an independent, nonprofit health system headquartered in St. Ignace, Michigan, overlooking the Straits of Mackinac. From its 15-bed Critical Access Hospital and 24-hour emergency department, it delivers care that rural communities rarely have close to home: a rural health clinic, oncology, outpatient surgery, a tribal health clinic, physical therapy, a pharmacy, and the 48-bed Evergreen Living Center for long-term care. Primary care clinics in Mackinaw City, Cheboygan, and on Mackinac Island extend that reach across the eastern Upper Peninsula and the tip of the Lower Peninsula. An affiliate of MyMichigan Health and a designated Level IV Trauma Center, MSHS serves year-round residents and the hundreds of thousands of visitors who pass through the Straits each season.

For a health system like this, the website is the front door. Patients use it to find a doctor, locate the nearest clinic, check emergency hours, register as a new patient, pay a bill, and reach the patient portal, often from a phone and often when it matters most. In 2016, MSHS needed a website that reflected the caliber of its care, worked for patients on any device, and handled sensitive patient information the right way.

What Web Ascender Did

• Designed and built a patient-first WordPress website - clear paths to locations, medical staff, services, and new-patient information, with a clean, trustworthy design that matches the quality of care inside the hospital
• Mobile-first for patients on the move - a responsive layout with the phone number, payment, and charity care links up front, because a patient looking for help shouldn’t have to hunt for them
• HIPAA-compliant form processes - patient-facing forms on the site collect protected health information through a secure, HIPAA-compliant workflow: encrypted submissions, secure storage, and delivery only to authorized staff, never to an ordinary email inbox
• Training and hand-off to the MSHS team - the health system’s staff manage their own news, events, providers, and pages, with Web Ascender available whenever they need a hand
• Managed hosting, security, and updates - we host the site, keep WordPress and its plugins patched, monitor uptime, and maintain the security posture a healthcare organization requires

The Outcome

Since launching in 2016, the MSHS website has been the reliable, always-on front door for a health system its region depends on. Patients find what they need quickly, forms that carry personal health information are handled securely and compliantly, and the MSHS team keeps the site current on its own.

Nearly a decade later, Web Ascender still hosts, secures, and supports the site, and we’re the team MSHS calls when it needs something new. It’s the kind of long-term relationship we’re built for.