You’ve probably heard by now that improvements are being made to our flagship website, VCH.ca. Read our Long and winding road to improving VCH.ca article, which explains why we are making changes for the better.

Behind the scenes improvement

While our current VCH.ca is still available, we’ve been working behind the scenes to move our content to a duplicate site. The new VCH.ca will be maintained in-house (hosted in the provincial data centre) with better navigation based on staff and public feedback, and a slightly refreshed visual style.

Over the past year, we’ve worked with VCH staff and the IT department to improve, add or remove content so all people—staff, clients, clinicians, patients—who use VCH.ca will have an easier time finding and understanding information. These changes will also help us meet worldwide Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (recommended by the provincial government) to ensure everyone can access our site, regardless of their level of ability.

A smooth transition to the improved VCH.ca

The new VCH.ca is planned to “go live” in March. We’ll be sure to let you know of the exact launch date in an upcoming edition of VCH news.

In the two weeks before launch, we will not make any updates to our current site—we will only update the new website. So plan ahead or you’ll have to wait to see your web updates.

If you’d like a VCH.ca page updated and don’t know how to request an update, check out the Hitchhiker’s Guide to VCH websites to learn the process.

Are you a subject matter expert for your program?

The launch of our refreshed VCH.ca will not be the end of our project—we see it as just the beginning. We’ll continue to reach out to staff who know the most about topics and services on VCH.ca so we can keep content up-to-date and correct.

If you notice incorrect or missing information about your program on VCH.ca, please reach out to us at webupdates@vch.ca and introduce yourself along with an explanation of what needs to change.

Help us keep content simple & accurate

A major goal of this improvement project is to make content as reader-friendly as possible. After all, most pages on VCH.ca exist to help members of the public access the health services they need. Let’s all try to avoid complicated sentences and confusing VCH acronyms. Check out our VCH brand website for tips on how to write for people who are reading content on websites.

And while we’re doing our best to ensure appropriate content moves to the new site, after the improved VCH.ca launches, please let us know if you think content (e.g. pages, links, PDFs) is missing or incorrect.

Thanks for reading and feel free to reach out to me directly or leave a comment or question below!

More articles about this improvement project:

• VCH.ca is improving and here’s why
• Learn how to write for websites
• Learn how to request updates to VCH websites