Hennepin County Medical Center

Emergency Notification to Specific Locations

Overview

Location: Minneapolis, MN
Medical Center Type: Urban
Personnel/Staff: 6,300+
Annual Clinic Visits: 537,467
Medical Center Size: Spread across 5 city blocks
Number of Buildings: Main campus, 7 neighborhoods

Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), a nationally recognized multi-site healthcare system, operates the largest emergency department in Minnesota. Located in the heart of downtown Minneapolis, the main campus is spread across five city blocks, which makes emergency communication a crucial element in the medical center’s day-to-day operations. “We’ve been talking for quite some time about our alert system,” says Jason Sufka, HCMC security operations supervisor, regarding the hospital’s proactive efforts to research and implement a comprehensive emergency notification system.

Challenge

Emergency alerting is not a new concept for HCMC. The medical center has used several paging systems but recently decided to move forward with one that extends beyond the simple page, email, and phone alerts. “One of the first times we recognized that it was a major issue was during the 35W bridge collapse,” says Sufka. “We found that from the start to the end of the page system took an obscene amount of time—around 20 minutes to get all of the messages out.”

The 35W bridge collapse, a major story nationwide, required quick response and action from all hospitals in the area, including HCMC, a Level-I trauma center. Immediately following the event, HCMC sent out an emergency page notifying all hospital staff that a disaster outside of the hospital resulted in multiple casualties. “The alert told our staff to report to the hospital so we could manage the patients we thought we might get,” says Sufka.

Following the event, it was discovered that some hospital staff never received that message. Many hospital employees only knew to report to the medical center once local news media started reporting that all hospitals required staff to report to their hospitals immediately. The bridge collapse, therefore, served as one of many reasons that led HCMC to implement the Alertus solution and establish a comprehensive emergency notification system beyond its antiquated paging system.

Solution

“One of the things we started talking about was ‘how are we going to notify everybody?’” says Sufka. “In the end, we settled that the important piece we were missing at HCMC was rapid notification to people physically on-site at the hospital, including patients, visitors, and employees.”

HCMC is unique in that it has more than 6,300 staff working in multiple medical cities and in various neighborhoods. “We ended up selecting the Alertus Desktop Notification because it’s the best way to reach all of our employees rapidly and then have a logged response when people acknowledge the alert,” says Sufka. The computer desktop alerting is also impossible to miss, with the capability to display a full-screen desktop alert. The medical center is also exploring Alertus’ USB panic button functionality, which would allow authorized dispatchers to activate an emergency alert.

In addition to Alertus Desktop Notification, HCMC also purchased several Alert Beacons and LED Marquees to cover its primary entry points into the facility. Sufka explains that these devices are beneficial when alerting the general public in an emergency. “We also wanted to use it for our normal emergency pages like a tornado warning,” says Sufka. “We could broadcast that as an instant emergency page so everybody will know to stay away from windows and take shelter immediately.”

Sufka goes on to explain that the Alert Beacons and LED Marquees are especially beneficial in the event of inclement weather. “In Minnesota, it’s no secret that we get a lot of snow.” The devices can be set up to activate a non-emergency page that displays a scrolling message with no flashing lights or sound. This has the benefit of sharing a general announcement or conveying caution and making people aware of events such as severe weather watches.

Conclusion

The next phase for HCMC is an organization-wide rollout. Zone or area-specific alerting is especially beneficial for large organizations like HCMC, says Sufka. “For example, an alert that has no pertaining information to our off-site clinics, then there’s no reason that the clinic needs to know about it. But if a disaster alert needs to go out to all clinics, then we would send it that way.”

HCMC, like many organizations, faces unique challenges when it comes to emergency alerts. And the medical center is up to the challenge as it continues to serve as a model for how an organization can quickly and effectively reach thousands of staff, patients, and visitors in the event of an emergency.

Hennepin County Medical Center

Hennepin County Medical Center is a nationally recognized Level I Adult Trauma Center and Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center with the largest emergency department in Minnesota. Hennepin Healthcare System, Inc., a subsidiary corporation of Hennepin County, operates it. The comprehensive academic medical center and public teaching hospital and clinic system include a 455-bed acute care hospital and primary care and specialty clinics located in downtown Minneapolis and St. Anthony, Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, Golden Valley, and Richfield; and in Minneapolis in the Whittier Neighborhood and on East Lake Street. HCMC also has an employer-based clinic in the Hennepin County Government Center.