Better Health Network

The problem

BHN was formed through the amalgamation of three well-established and well-regarded community health organisations: Central Bayside Community Health Service, Connect Health & Community, and Star Health. Each had its own identity, its own web presence, and its own loyal patient base.

The challenge wasn't simply building a new website. It was ensuring that patients who had trusted these organisations for years could find their way to the same services under a new name, without confusion, disruption, or (in a health context) any risk of people disengaging from care they depended on. Getting the messaging wrong was more than a marketing problem. It had real consequences for real people.

The approach

We started with discovery, running a series of structured sessions with stakeholders across all three organisations to map the full landscape of services and determine how they would be presented under one roof. The central design challenge was service findability. How would a patient who had always gone to one provider navigate an entirely new organisation to find the care they needed?

Through user journey mapping and prototyping, we worked through the UX before a single page was designed, so the structure of the new site was shaped by how patients actually think and search, rather than by how the organisation was internally structured.

We were provided with a new logo and brand colours and tasked with building everything else. We created the full visual and digital identity from the ground up, translating the new brand into a website that felt coherent, trustworthy, and distinctly BHN.

The solution

With three large organisations each navigating their own workflows, stakeholder consultations, and internal processes, waiting for everything to be finalised before going live wasn't an option. Patients needed clear information now. We developed a phased approach: first, a focused information mini-site to communicate the amalgamation quickly and clearly; second, a fully branded website with complete service information; and third, a service-focused web experience designed around the UX work, ready to launch once community consultations were complete. The three legacy websites were kept live for a full year, giving patients time to find their footing before the transition was complete.

The results

The phased approach delivered a smooth transition that protected patient access throughout:

For a community health organisation, a website is more than a marketing asset. More visitors finding their way in means more people accessing the care they need.