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