Redundant communication refers to having multiple back-up communication modalities and is imperative in emergency preparedness planning. Past experience demonstrates that hospitals cannot depend on just one or two means for communication.
Some examples of redundant communication include:
- Basic telephone systems
- In-building wireless phone systems
- Overhead announcement and paging systems
- Nurse call system
- Voice over Internet Protocol systems
- Cell phones
- Beepers and pocket pagers
- Enterprise systems
- BlackBerries and similar devices
- Text messaging
- Text-to-voice translation
- Communication systems for the deaf and hearing impaired
- Telephonic translation lines and services
- Access control systems
- Fax machines
- Hospital television network systems
- Mass notification systems
- Hospital electronic bulletin boards
- Intranet message posting
- Bed-tracking and facility status reporting systems
- Electronic health record systems
- Enterprise systems for networked hospitals
- Resource and grant-asset tracking systems
- Evacuee and disaster patient tracking systems
- Emergency medical services communication systems
- Emergency desktop and mobile handheld programmed radios
- Communication with emergency operations centers
- Public health monitoring and notification systems (syndromic surveillance systems, threat notification systems, outbreak management systems)
- Satellite radio and communication systems
- Ham radio systems
- Human runners, paper and pen