Interfaith Medical Center

Transforming a 444i into a Code Red Action Plan

Russ had several goals with Everbridge: faster communications without overloading the call center; better message-targeting so staff received fewer, more relevant messages; and consistent, easy-to-understand messaging. With responsibility for reporting incidents and initiating response, call center operators were central to Ross's strategy. Ease of use and the ability to limit message variance were extremely important.

To accomplish his objectives, Russ and the IT infrastructure team created a series of scenarios and unscheduled messages for incidents ranging from hazardous material spills to Joint Commission visits to EMS diversions and external disasters.

Russ trained operators to rely first on scenarios for reporting incidents, but to also have the ability to send non-scripted messages in an unusual situation and provide status updates with incident-specific details. Russ integrated Everbridge Aware into the hospital’s emergency response plan and designed a playbook for operators by customizing Everbridge’s training to the hospital’s procedures. As a result, Russ has transformed IMC’s emergency communications. What was once a 444i across a pager is now a clear and effective Code Red action plan.

Peer-to-Peer: Russ’s Advice

• Use unscheduled messages and scenarios for message consistency. You will save your team a lot of guesswork and improve understanding greatly.
• Poll team members for response times to help you strategize how to deploy resources. By knowing who will be on-site first, you can start creating a task list right away based on skill level, decision-making abilities, and more.
• Attach your after-action report template in an all-clear alert to key team members. You will save a lot of time post-incident by having key players submit incident summaries using your template.
• Remember to get buy-in. The success of your incident notification program depends on buy-in from all three levels of users: senior leadership, staff, and end-users. You need senior leadership to support you financially and directionally. Staff needs to understand why you need to communicate. End-users need to be comfortable with how the system helps them and how to send messages so they use it the way you designed it.
• Get someone to help you. Learn from Everbridge and from peers at other organizations how they addressed common challenges. While we compete with other organizations for business, emergency preparedness is not a competition. Share your knowledge and learnings in the best interest of the community.