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What is “Redundant Communication”?

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
  • E-mail
  • 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