The new Vivantes website: A challenging TYPO3 project for digital healthcare

How can high standards of medical quality, responsibility, and service orientation be consistently translated into the digital world? e-pixler supported the relaunch of the Vivantes website holistically as a digital full-service partner.

With around 20,000 employees and annual revenue of 1.66 billion euros, Vivantes is one of Germany's largest municipal healthcare providers. The network includes nine hospitals, 18 nursing homes, four short-term care facilities, outpatient rehabilitation, medical care centers, a hospice, as well as other subsidiaries.

First things first: together with all involved parties, e-pixler mastered the digital large-scale project with flying colors in an remarkably short period of time implemented. The Vivantes website is now a highly modern, user-centered, accessible, and future-proof platform based on the open-source CMS TYPO3.

And now, step by step, for everyone who wants to take a look behind the scenes of the project.

The initial situation

The primary goal was to make the Vivantes brand feel contemporary and accessible. At the same time, there was a clear commercial requirement: reducing maintenance efforts.

The Vivantes website had historically grown, separate systems. So we were able to consolidate three independent websites as well as various microsites into a central TYPO3 multisite instance. This consolidation unifies future editorial maintenance and system administration, saving time and costs.

Changing perspective – from location to patient 

A key conceptual step was the shift in perspective: away from a purely location-based structure and toward a consistent focus on the patient. For us, the path the patient takes from the first perception of symptoms through to the completion of treatment was decisive.

To this end, the information architecture was radically streamlined. Through cleverly bundled topic worlds, the scope of the subpages could be reduced from approx. 8,000 to approx. 4,000 pages – without losing any information. A highlight is the newly created "Medical Worlds". They make complex medical content easy to understand and accessible, bundle the expertise from the Vivantes network, and enable quick orientation from conditions to specialist departments and specialized services.

All areas and functions of the website were implemented using the Mobile First approach and therefore geared more strongly toward flexible use on smartphones and tablets.

TYPO3 as a powerful foundation 

For us as a TYPO3 agency, the content management system once again proved to be the perfect choice for complex enterprise requirements. Implementation was carried out strictly according to TYPO3 code guidelines using the Bootstrap framework to ensure long-term update compatibility.

To map the diverse requirements of a hospital network, the e-pixler IT specialists implemented numerous technical features and interfaces. These include:

• High-performance Solr search: The heart of the navigation, which uses extensive faceting to guide interested users precisely from doctor profiles to the medical blog.
• Complex database models: Complete redesign of the relationships between locations, facilities, and people.
• Interface integration: Seamless connection ofUmantis(job portal),SmED(online initial assessment for patients), and live waiting room monitoring for emergency departments.
• Interactive tools: Editorially maintainable salary and price calculators as well as comprehensive event and course tools with resource management.

Accessibility and SEO as integral components

The website meets the strict requirements of WCAG 2.2 AA. For Vivantes, accessibility is not just a legally mandated obligation, but much more a lived form of inclusion. Every person should be able to navigate and orient themselves independently on the website.

In the area of SEO, the task was to offset visibility losses during the relaunch and, beyond that, to ensure even greater visibility. For this purpose, analytics (GA4, GTM), consent management, and 3rd-party provider management were centrally controlled and aligned in compliance with data protection regulations. In addition, the website was already prepared for "Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)" search queries by equipping relevant areas with structured schema.org datasets. 

High decision discipline and clear prioritization

The greatest challenge lay in the combination of an extremely ambitious timeline, the consolidation of three independent websites and various microsites, as well as the coordination of numerous stakeholders within the corporate structure.

e-pixler solved this challenge through strong decisiveness and clear prioritization. In doing so, we were strongly guided by the agile methodology. As the service provider, we also particularly took on the role of the Product Owner. Epics were formulated and prioritized taking dependencies into account.

Within the Epics, User Stories were formulated, refined, and implemented immediately after approval in collaboration with the client. Regular sprint planning and review meetings ensured that all parties were always working from the same information level during implementation.

e-pixler was significantly involved in content maintenance. We supported Vivantes in transferring texts - always with the aim of efficiently combining the specialist, regulatory, and organizational requirements of a large hospital network.

The editorial plan we established made it possible to structure content maintenance, migrate existing content with quality assurance, or consolidate it.

Result and outlook

The new Vivantes website is the first digital point of contact for many people seeking medical help - it informs, guides, builds trust, and makes Vivantes' strength as a large municipal healthcare provider tangible.

The technical and content foundation is designed to efficiently accommodate future expansions. Additional microsites (hospice and rehabilitation) will be integrated step by step.

The last sentence is reserved for our as always reliable network:

We would like to thank the Vivantes Online Team led by Sophie Lehmann and Sandra Seidenstücker, as well as the two partner agencies UVA Kommunikation und Medien GmbH and Suchmeisterei GmbH, for the excellent cooperation.

Website: https://www.vivantes.de/

Photo: Kevin Kuka