Page 35 - FCW, May/June 2020

Commentary|BY TODD MILLER
TODD MILLER is chief operating officer at Rave Mobile Safety.
How to use mass notifications for COVID-19
The technology can target vulnerable populations and ensure that people have accurate and up-to-date information
As the coronavirus continues to spread across the United States, public health and safety agencies play an increasingly important role in sharing information with the public and guiding people to the right resources.
However, those agencies can
no longer rely on traditional communication methods to reach the public. Instead, they should turn to emergency communications technologies, particularly mass notification systems, to both calm and inform residents.
Mass notification systems typically allow a sender to communicate a single message to a large group of people via email, text, a reverse-911 system or a combination of modes. Most educational institutions,
large organizations, and state and local governments rely on such systems to communicate with their communities about severe weather, active shooter incidents and other emergencies.
Such systems offer automatic updates and simple interfaces, and many offer segmentation, which allows users to split their databases into groups of individuals depending on role, location or other attributes. This enables public health agencies to send targeted coronavirus alerts to those who are at greater risk for respiratory infections, for example.
In some cases, mass notifications can also be used to gather information from residents. By deploying the polling features that some solutions offer, public health
officials can access and analyze data in real time, which helps them make quicker and better decisions. For example, the Louisiana Department of Health is using mass notification solutions to send information and also collect coronavirus-related data from residents, such as who is in quarantine.
Public health and safety agencies are not the only ones that can benefit from such solutions. State unemployment offices, social
Keeping residents well informed about the virus will help them act in the best interest of the community.
services agencies, education departments and schools are also finding the tool incredibly helpful in sharing important information with the people they serve.
When sending information about the coronavirus, public safety officials must:
• Communicate the facts quickly and often. Public
health agencies should use mass notifications to provide factual updates as soon as officials have them. Those updates should include confirming the status of cases within
their communities and current risk levels. Keeping residents well informed about the virus will help them act in the best interest of the community, thereby containing the spread of both the illness and anxiety.
• Share reliable resources.
Through mass notification systems, local officials can guide residents to reliable health authorities, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so that they have the most accurate and up-to-
date information about the virus. Agencies can be certain that the best information is reaching the most residents possible, and people can easily access additional information via a link sent directly to their smartphones. Additionally, officials can direct users to local health departments to learn from familiar, trusted voices about measures their communities are taking to fight the spread of the virus.
• Provide targeted communications. Officials must be able to provide highly targeted communications to high-risk individuals, including precautions they should take and resources available to help them. Officials can also communicate with certain segments of the community based on their geographical location and whether they are self-quarantined.
By using mass notification systems, officials can provide people with the information they need to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. n
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