Ballad Health is a multi-state health system serving communities across Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky through 21 hospitals, long-term care facilities, and outpatient locations.

Ballad Health recognized an opportunity to modernize its digital experience and better support how patients find care, access information, and engage with the health system online. The existing website structure, navigation, and content organization created opportunities to improve usability, discoverability, and conversion across key patient journeys.

Modea partnered with Ballad Health to redesign and rebuild the platform, creating a more intuitive, data-informed experience that aligned with the organization’s mission while improving access for both patients and providers.

Modea combined deep UX research, audience persona development, and technical platform migration to transform Ballad Health’s digital front door.

Uncovering Friction Points Across UX, SEO, and Analytics

Building on a prior partnership, Modea conducted a comprehensive UX audit, SEO audit, and analytics review to identify key friction points. The research revealed underutilized provider reviews, ambiguous navigation, and opportunities for clearer calls-to-action. To ensure alignment with user expectations, Modea developed distinct patient personas that informed design decisions, messaging strategy, and content organization throughout the project.

Restructuring Navigation Around Distinct Patient Audiences

Using research findings and behavioral insights, Modea restructured the homepage and primary navigation to create clearer pathways for different audiences—separating employee and consumer experiences while improving access to key services. High-traffic pages like Medical Services were redesigned, Press Ganey provider reviews were integrated for transparency, and provider/location search workflows were streamlined.

Migrating to Drupal for Long-Term Scalability

To support long-term scalability, Modea migrated Ballad Health’s website to a modern Drupal CMS platform. The engineering team integrated Phynd provider data into Find a Doctor and location experiences to improve data consistency. Additionally, expanded healthcare data analytics capabilities were introduced to enable A/B testing, continuous performance monitoring, and ongoing optimization.

• Audit-Driven Insights: Conducted deep UX, SEO, and analytics reviews to eliminate friction in key patient workflows.
• Drupal CMS Migration: Rebuilt the web architecture on Acquia Drupal for long-term scalability and governance.
• Provider Data Integration: Connected Phynd and Symplr systems to power seamless search and directory experiences.
• Integrated Patient Reviews: Embedded Press Ganey ratings directly into provider profiles to boost transparency and trust.

The redesigned platform delivered measurable improvements across Ballad Health‘s engagement, patient access, and digital self-service while establishing a scalable foundation for future growth. Patients increasingly turned to digital pathways to find information and take action, creating a more effective online experience while reducing reliance on phone-based support.