Planning and Implementing a Campus Mass Notification System

One of the most critical elements in any disaster planning and preparedness program is the use of an effective mass notification system to alert all staff, students, visitors, patients and vendors that there is an immediate emergency unfolding and instructing them how
to safely respond.

Whether it is a weather-related disaster, for example, a college may cancel classes during an ice storm; a water main break or whether it is an active shooter incident located in a specific area of the campus, mass notification is a critical element of keeping people safe during any type of emergency.

Danger on Campus

For example, on October 1, 2015, an active-shooter breached a lecture hall at Umpqua Community College in Oregon and began shooting students.  It was a shocking event because 10 students were killed (including the shooter) and many more were wounded.  The shooter asked students whether they were Christians, and if they were, he shot them in the head, and if they said no, he shot them in the leg. 

The most distressing element of the Umpqua Community College incident was that the mass notification system didn’t work.   The system had been purchased and implemented but when the disaster happened, the system did not work.  It had been set up to send out emails and text messages to all students, staff and contractors, and the system even had a scrolling banner across the screen of all campus computers. But still, the system failed. 

As news of the shootings and the sounds of the gunshots were heard on the campus, students were posting questions and warnings on twitter. They were also calling their parents, who were unable to find out information on the safety of their children.  The shooting was a pivotal event in the adoption of mass notification systems.

Every organization should have a mass notification system in place.  Whether the organization is a hospital, a college or university, a business, a retail store, a mall, or a medical clinic, this piece should be a critical element of your organization’s emergency plan.

If your company or organization is planning to implement a mass notification system, here are some of the things to consider when selecting the system that will work best for your application

Elements to Consider When Implementing a Mass Notification System

• Does it Match Your Organizational Needs? Make sure the system fits your organization.  If you are a small organization, you might not need to use social media feeds like Facebook or Twitter as part of your mass notification system.
• To Text or Not to Text? Pick the elements that your organization will actually use.  For example, if you are a college or university, the system must include automatic texts because that is what students use most.
• Should Campus Message Boards be Included? Do you need just wireless notification, or do you need to add message boards across the campus to flash a message to people in transit, from one building to another?
• Is the System Flexible? Does the mass notification system allow for flexibility, so you can automatically notify people in one facility, instead of the entire campus list?
• Is the System Easy to Maintain? Is the system easy to maintain, especially in an institution like a college, where you have a large influx of new students twice a year?  Is it easy to add and delete people in the program?
• Can You Scale the System Up or Down? Would the system easily expand up if you added 1,000 new people tomorrow? Alternatively, could it also scale down if a part of the company was sold?
• How do You Handle Staff Training? Commitment to properly train the staff on the new system is a must.  Explore training options like an online training refresher class that can be accessed at any time, or even instructions that can be attached to the phone
  at each workstation, or a card that staff can take with them, knowing that it’s impossible to know where each person may be when disaster strikes.
• Does the Vendor Have a Good Track Record? The vendor of the mass notification system you purchase will be critically important to the success of the system, and to ensure its installation and setup will be as painless as possible.  Make sure the vendor understands how your organization will be using the system and how you need to have it set up ahead of time to minimize problems.

No matter the specific mass notification system selected,  you’ll need to decide whether staff will be required to use the system on their personal cell phones and home computers, or whether they have a choice of how they prefer to be contacted in case of an emergency. And as advanced capabilities are added to the organization’s mass notification system, all the policies and procedures for emergency preparedness, safety and security will need to be updated.

While use and capabilities of mass notification systems have expanded over the past decade when they were primarily used only for weather emergencies, such as tornadoes, hurricane warnings and flood warnings, today’s systems are far more proactive for safety and security purposes such as active shooter, workplace violence and terrorist incidents. 

So as the use of mass notification software increases beyond its presumptive boundaries, what other uses are organizations finding for their systems? Some of the most common are:

• Event Notification: to alert of upcoming, or cancellation of events
• Attendance alerts: in an educational setting, this can alert parents and guardians when a student is tardy or absent, or in healthcare, notify of an elopement or abduction.
• News Updates: keeping parties informed about a particular item like a water main break.
• Building Closure: for maintenance reasons or a power outage.
• Ad-hoc meetings: when it is necessary to gather a group of individuals

In these cases, the mass notification system becomes not just a critical element of the emergency planning process but acts as a direct communication tool that can be used in a variety of circumstances.

Technology that is Helping the Community

At the beginning of this article, I referenced the Umpqua Community College shooting, where the mass notification system failed when needed, and how that may have contributed to the high number of deaths at the college.

However, there are numerous positive instances of how mass notification systems have saved lives, property and worked as a critical community resource.

In instances of inclement weather circumstances can change with each passing minute, the mass notification system can serve a vital role in keeping people safe by announcing hurricane or tornado emergencies in advance;  sending out notifications of flooding in communities, or even intersections;  notifying specific areas of cities and unincorporated areas of urgent evacuations, as in flooding during Hurricane Katrina, and also in the recent spate of wildfires in the western United States.  Besides notifying residents of a required evacuation, they can also provide residents information concerning evacuation options, where available shelters are open in local areas, and even places where pets are welcomed.

Compliance Issues

On November 15, 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) posted a new Final Rule for Emergency Preparedness in the Federal Register.  The Rule covers 17 types of healthcare organizations, from hospitals to ambulatory surgery centers to medical clinics and hospices.  This new broad-reaching rule has to be complied with by November 15, 2017 and includes a requirement for a mass communication system.

The CMS Final Rule on Emergency Preparedness states that:, “A hospital [must] have a process for ensuring cooperation and collaboration with local, tribal, regional, state, or federal emergency preparedness officials’ efforts to ensure an integrated response during a disaster or emergency situation.”

“In addition, “we would expect the facility to include in its emergency plan a method for contacting off-duty staff during an emergency and procedures to address other contingencies in the event staff are not able to report to duty which may include but are not limited to staff from other facilities and state or federally-designated health professionals.”

Accrediting organizations like the Joint Commission for healthcare organizations also includes similar requirements for communication systems.

Difficult times call for new strategies in protecting staff and facilities.  Having a mass notification system is a critical component in ensuring organizational staff is safe during a wide variety of emergencies.  Whether it is a flooding event, an approaching tornado, a domestic violence incident,  severe heat, an active shooter, a local terrorist, or a variety of other types of events, having a mass notification system is one of the very best controls you can implement that will help your organization function better in an emergency situation.

About the Author:   

Caroline Ramsey Hamilton is the President of Risk & Security LLC, Risk-Pro Software & Active Shooter RISKAlert Program and Risk & Security LTD. Her group performs security risk assessments for top federal agencies, private companies and local government including hospitals, schools, manufacturing. Their security risk assessment programs include CMS Final Rule Emergency Preparedness All-Hazards Security Risk Assessments, Joint Commission EOC, Active Shooter Assessments, FEMA, HIPAA, NFPA, EOC, DOD, OSHA, OSHA 3148 for Healthcare and Active Shooter.