Hospitals may benefit substantially in achieving landline and
cell communications and restoring communications after a
disruption in service with and without a declared disaster.
GETS provides emergency access and priority
processing in the local and long distance segments of the Public
Switched Network (PSN). Federal, state, and local government,
industry, and non-profit organization personnel performing their
national security and emergency preparedness missions can apply
for and receive the GETS card and access code.
WPS is a method of improving connection
capabilities for a limited number of authorized national security
and emergency preparedness cell phone users. In the event of
congestion in the wireless network, an emergency call using WPS
will wait in queue for the next available channel.
TSP does two things: It gives a higher priority
to restoration of lost service by the hospital’s telcom provider,
and in the event that new services are needed at the current/ new
hospital location, the new lines will be expedited in the
installation process.
The Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) is a
White House-directed emergency phone service provided by the
National Communications System (NCS) in the Cyber Security &
Communications Division, National Protection and Programs of the
Department of Homeland Security.
GETS supports Federal, State, local, and tribal government,
industry, and non-governmental organization (NGO) personnel in
performing their National Security and Emergency Preparedness
(NS/EP) missions. GETS provides emergency access and priority
processing in the local and long distance segments of the Public
Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). It is intended to be used in
an emergency or crisis situation when the PSTN is congested and
the probability of completing a call over normal or other
alternate telecommunication means has significantly decreased.
GETS is available to hospitals and other organizations
responsible for emergency preparedness, response, and recovery.
Individuals who would need to communicate during an emergency
should carry a personal GETS card.
Key locations and functions such as hospital crisis centers
should keep a supply of GETS cards on hand for use during an
emergency. As of September 2008, 138 California hospitals have
obtained over 1800 GETS cards. GETS uses the full capacity of the
public network, it is not a separate system or network with
limited capacity.
The only cost to obtain GETS cards is the short time it takes to
request GETS through the easy-to-use on-line system and to train
personnel. GETS cards remain U.S. Government property for
official use by authorized personnel; the user organization is
neither purchasing nor acquiring ownership of the GETS cards.
