Northfield's marketing lead reviewing printed page layouts with two Vettra freelancers

Two launches, one deadline.
Live in nine weeks.

How a regional children's health network shipped a patient portal and a flu vaccination site with a Vettra Projects team.

Healthcare
Vettra Projects
Team of 4
Fixed price

9 weeks

From kickoff to both launches

31%

Lower cost than the agency quote

2.4x

Online appointment requests, first quarter

Flu season sets the date.
Nobody moves it.

Northfield needed a patient portal and a vaccination campaign site live by October 1, with a team already at capacity.

Northfield's brief Jun 9

NeedA project team

ScopePortal, campaign site

Live byOctober 1

Shortlist 41 hours

Team of 4

UX, development, copy, PM

Fixed price

Oct 1Launch date, set by leadership in June

2 sitesA patient portal and a vaccination campaign

3 peopleIn the digital team, already at capacity

8+ weeksAgency ramp-up quoted before any design

The challenge

Northfield runs one children's hospital and 14 community clinics. In June, leadership set October 1 for two launches: online appointment requests on a new patient portal, and a vaccination campaign site for flu season.

The digital team of three was already full. The agency they knew quoted eight weeks of discovery before design, at a price the budget could not carry.

The approach

Their Client Lead turned one brief into a fixed-price Vettra Projects team: a UX designer, a web developer, a copywriter and a project manager, shortlisted in 41 hours.

The team worked inside Northfield's own CMS and Slack, tested prototypes with 12 parents and demoed every Friday, so approvals never piled up at the end.

The outcome

Both sites went live on September 26, five days early, and 31% under the agency quote, with no retainer to unwind.

Online appointment requests rose from 1,180 to 2,830 in the first quarter, and the campaign site booked 3,860 vaccinations. Northfield's own team now runs both sites, from a handover guide written for them.

Four specialists, one brief.
One fixed price for all four.

How Vettra Projects works

Leah Tanaka, UX designer — Leah Tanaka UX designer Vetted Mapped the appointment journey and tested it with 12 parents.

Callum Reid, web developer — Callum Reid Web developer Vetted Built both sites in Northfield's CMS, accessible to WCAG 2.2 AA.

Nadia Rahman, copywriter — Nadia Rahman Copywriter Vetted Wrote plain-language pages that clinicians signed off in two rounds.

Marcus Bell, project manager — Marcus Bell Project manager Team lead Ran the Friday demos and kept both launches on one plan.

Shortlisted by Daniel Russo, Client Lead. One brief in, four vetted profiles back with rates and availability.

Book a demo

Nine weeks, week by week.
Live five days early.

31% lower cost

Against the agency quote, for the same two launches and a handover.

The Vettra team walking through page wireframes at a whiteboard

9 Friday demos

Clinical and marketing leads saw the work every week, not at the end.

3,860

Vaccinations booked through the campaign site in its first eight weeks.

From kickoff to launch

Design, copy and build overlapped, so nothing waited in a queue.

Work Sign-off Launch Oct 1 deadline

Kickoff and discovery
Journeys and prototypes
Testing with 12 parents
Copy and clinical sign-off
Build in Northfield's CMS
Accessibility and QA
Launch and handover
Live Sep 26Oct 1 deadline

2.4x

More online appointment requests, now that parents book without calling.

“We had a fixed date and no room for an eight-week ramp-up. Vettra had a vetted team shortlisted in two days and demoing by the first Friday, and both sites went live before flu season started.”

Rebecca Lindqvist Director of Digital Marketing, Northfield Children's