Aware for H1N1

Pandemic Response and Management

• Situational awareness. Keep the executive management team and stakeholders abreast of the situation with Aware^® using targeted notifications and conference call briefings. Decide on response plan activation and go-forward plans via conference call. Use attachments to distribute critical documents and visual representations of the situation as it unfolds, such as CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) flu surveillance reports and maps.
• Continuity of operations plan activation. Build multi-message scenarios that align with plan activation triggers for more rapid response.
• Response team management. Notify and assemble the incident command and response teams. Use polling to determine people resource availability and reporting times and conference calls to brief the team and determine next steps.
• Volunteer coordination. Upload temporary lists of volunteers and fill-in staff using Everbridge Express Call. Leverage quota notifications to recruit a specific number of volunteers. Standard and polling notifications help you to deploy and manage volunteers on an ongoing basis

Continuity of Operations

• Remote roll-calling and absenteeism management. Generate personnel rosters in real-time through polling to account for absences and to determine staffing needs.
• Escalation. The CDC predicts your workforce may suffer a 40% absenteeism rate due to employee illness and caring for family members. But which 40%? Designate up to three back-ups per person with Everbridge Aware’s escalation capabilities
• Flex-staffing. Fill shift gaps and shortages by polling staff to determine availability to work and reporting times. Make use of user attributes to search for and contact staff with specific skills.
• Regional collaboration. Communicate and coordinate with external resources, such as local government (city, county, and hospitals), CDC, Department of Public Health, and more.
• Compliance. Everbridge Aware’s robust reporting capabilities provide an audit and compliance trail of all communications, which can be used to comply with federal, state, and other regulatory communication requirements.

Prevention and Protection

• Employee communications. Maintain an ongoing dialogue with employees through regular notifications about office closures, travel restrictions, quarantine guidelines, and guidance on preventing the spread of the H1N1 virus.
• Social distancing and infection control. Leverage Everbridge Aware’s scheduled and on-the-fly conference call capabilities to reduce non-critical face-to-face contact.
• Policy activation. Notify employees of the activation of pandemic-specific policies and procedures, such as work-at-home and sick-leave policies. Include policies as attachments to notifications for reference. Alert employees about return to normal policies post-pandemic.
• Employee information line. Set up a secure information hotline employees can call into to hear official organization updates targeted to the entire employee base and to receive messages targeted to specific employees or groups using Everbridge Aware’s Premium Call-In.
• Rumor control. Quash rumors and prevent their spread through proactive, ongoing communications across your employee base.

Community Support

• Community information line. Offer a community information hotline using Everbridge Aware’s Call-In capabilities. Advise community members about symptoms of the H1N1 flu virus, vaccination clinics, and emergency warning signs that medical treatment is required.
• Community education. Provide guidance about H1N1 flu safety precautions and preventative measures.
• Public health alerts. Use Everbridge Aware+GIS’s geographic targeting to issue notices about outbreaks, building closures, quarantine zones, and more.
• Vaccination coordination. Notify citizens of flu vaccination locations. Send reminders for follow-up shots.

Everbridge Aware^® in Action

Rockford Health System manages H1N1 response and SNS deployment
During the H1N1 influenza (swine flu) outbreak, Rockford Health System used Everbridge Aware extensively to manage incident response and Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) deployment within Rockford Memorial and the 14 other regional hospitals. Download the full case study.

Bank of Hawaii keeps management abreast of a public health emergency
When cases of H1N1 flu infections started flooding in from around the world, Bank of Hawaii used the Everbridge incident notification system daily to keep executive management current on the national and international H1N1 flu situation and to keep them apprised of the implementation of applicable sections of the Bank of Hawaii’s corporate pandemic plan. Download the full case study.