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INDUSTRIES
INDUSTRIES
Service Provider Featured Article
December 18, 2007
RedSky E911 Manager Case Study
By TMCnet Special Guest
Nick Maier, Senior Vice President, RedSky
The Company
Allina Hospitals & Clinics is a not-for-profit family of hospitals, clinics and other care services dedicated to meeting the lifelong health care needs of communities throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. The more than 22,500 employees, 5,000 physicians and 2,500 volunteers share a common mission, values and vision which fosters integrity, respect, trust and compassion. Allina is “committed to meet the expectations and act in the best interests of our patients, physicians, communities and one another.”
The Challenge
The Challenge
Providing a safe working environment and achieving legal compliance
Allina employees work around the clock at a new corporate complex in downtown Minneapolis, answering calls and providing technical support for the entire health network. As a result, providing 24-hour security and workplace safety are priorities for Allina and were the chief reasons behind the company’s decision to add RedSky (News - Alert) Technologies’ E911 Manager to their corporate network.
Legal compliance was another major factor in Allina’s decision to pursue E911 for their environment. Upon reviewing the Minnesota E911 legislation, Allina corporate attorneys determined that the best course of action was not only to implement a system that complied with legislation but also one that reliably and consistently provided the safest environment for employees.
Delivering prompt emergency response to employees in a large downtown high-rise
Once the decision was made to go forward with E911, Allina faced some distinct challenges to find the right solution that met their objectives of consistency, reliability and ease of use. Allina streamlined and consolidated their 13 corporate offices scattered around the Twin Cities into one mammoth headquarters complex and installed a new state-of-the art Avaya (News - Alert) communications system that supports a mix of 2,500 digital, analog and IP
voice endpoints spread across 9 floors and a sub-basement. They required a scalable E911 system that supported all types of users from a single server so that location information would be kept up to date at all times.
voice endpoints spread across 9 floors and a sub-basement. They required a scalable E911 system that supported all types of users from a single server so that location information would be kept up to date at all times. Solution
Tight integration with the communications system leverages technology and maximizes resources
A critical factor to support the objective of delivering prompt emergency response is to ensure that consistent, accurate and timely location identification information is being captured and updated with the proper databases for all users. Dedicating the administrative resources to manage this information can be a challenge and an added risk especially when trying to ensure legal compliance.
Allina chose E911 Manager because of its certified integration with the Avaya Communication Manager and its ability to automatically track and update location information as users move around on the network. Specific considerations that were addressed during the implementation process included:
- Determining the level of granularity for location identification for each floor and phone type
Because each facility is unique, having the flexibility to define the location of a user based on the layout of the building or floor is key to providing the most actionable information to emergency responders.
- Defining a corporate protocol to maintain accurate location information as users change locations
Although important, sometimes E911 is not top-of-mind for administrators as they go about their daily routine. That’s why establishing a consistent protocol for moving users on the network is critical so that it becomes second nature to the administrator.
- Providing ongoing updates to the regional ALI database provider to ensure compliance with the law
Of critical importance is to ensure all changes are captured and updated with the regional ALI database provider consistently and in the proper format.
Another important factor for Allina in their hunt for an E911 provider was to ensure on-site notification for corporate security. Allina uses on-site uniformed security staff to support the safety of its employees. Delivering real-time 911 notifications to these security professionals with the complete location record was a key requirement for the system they chose.
Integration with the communications system, automatic location tracking, the flexibility in supporting a variety of methods for location identification and on-site notification were the factors that supported Allina’s decision to select RedSky’s E911 Manager and Emergency On-site Notification software.
Impact
Allina has met its objective of providing a safe working environment for employees and visitors. “Since we installed the E911 Manager system, our response times are awesome,” says Holst. On-site security now can respond immediately to provide assistance to distressed callers while public emergency responders are on their way.
This Allina facility is now in compliance with the Minnesota E911 law and as expansion occurs, additional sites will be brought online for E911 protection. The integration and automation of E911 Manager maximizes human resources and demonstrates ongoing compliance with the law through its automatic reporting and tracking. On top of that, it provides corporate risk managers and telecom administrators with the confidence that their location data is up to date and in sync with regional 911 databases for all types of phones.
Nick Maier is Senior Vice President at RedSky.
