Emergency contact system and method

• US 20070046456A1
• Filed: 08/29/2005
• Published: 03/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SRCL Expert Solutions LLC
• Original Assignee: Stericycle Incorporated
• Inventors: Woodruff, Carrie, Goossen, Bryan, Edwards, Kenneth
• Granted Patent: US 7,522,038 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.100
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/14 Central alarm receiver or annunciator arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/00 Alarm systems in which the alarm condition is signalled from a central station to a plurality of substations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways

Abstract

A system and method for managing crisis communication are disclosed. A contact database holds information used to deliver broadcast messages to selected contacts. Messages are prepared in advance for delivery via different channels, including voice, fax, pager, and e-mail. Contact groups are defined by selecting specific contacts, or as “criteria groups” defined by search criteria. Notification tasks are created by determining the contact groups to receive the broadcast, then adding others if desired. Messages are selected for broadcast transmission in various channels. Administrators view a table of status codes for each attempted transmission. They filter the table based on each contact'"'"'s status. Contacts or filtered sets can be added to and removed from a “renotification” list using the interactively filtered table. When contacts fail to confirm or update their contact information for longer than a certain period, the system automatically sends that contact a message reminding them to do so.

Claims

1. A system for communicating a message to a plurality of contacts, comprising:

a first processor; and

computer-readable memory in communication with the first processor, the memory containing;

a group of contacts and, for each contact, information identifying one or more ways to communicate a message to that contact; and

programming instructions executable by the first processor;

wherein the instructions are executable by the first processor;

to attempt, automatically and responsively to a trigger event, to communicate a message to at least a selected subset of the contacts in the group using the information in the computer-readable memory;

to display to a user the status of the attempts;

interactively to filter the display based on a user-selected function of the completion status of each attempt; and

responsively to a Renotify command from a user, to attempt again to contact one or more contacts shown in the filtered display.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the list is stored in a relational database.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the database is managed by a second processor that is in communication with the first processor via a network.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is a user command.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is the failure of the processor to receive a predetermined user command in a predetermined time interval.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the information identifying one or more ways to communicate the message to the contacts includes a channel type for each way to communicate a message to each contact; and

the user-selected function is a function of both the completion status of each attempt and the channel type of each attempt.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the display is a table having:

a row for each contact to which the system is attempting to communicate the message; and

a GUI widget with which a user can select the filter to apply to the display.

8. A method of disseminating emergency messages, comprising:

storing a database of records that each hold information about a contact, wherein

the records store the information in fields, and

at least one field is a user-named data field capable of holding a user-defined value for each contact;

identifying one or more criteria, including at least one criterion that is a function of the value in the user-defined data field, for selecting records from the database;

saving the one or more criteria on a first day;

retrieving the one or more criteria on a second day that comes some time after the first day; and

after the retrieving, attempting to automatically communicate a message to the contacts to whom the one or more criteria apply.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the database also holds channel preference information that indicates a preference of at least one contact for one particular channel of communication over another channel of communication; and

the attempting step uses the preferred channel of communication for the at least one contact whenever possible.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the database also holds channel preference information that indicates a preference of at least one contact for one particular channel of communication over another channel of communication; and

the attempting step uses the preferred channel of communication for the at least one contact whenever possible, unless the preference is selectively overridden by a user.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the storing occurs before the retrieving.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the saving step includes associating the one or more criteria with a criteria set name; and

the retrieving step includes

specifying the criteria set name, and

loading the one or more criteria associated with the criteria set name.

13. A method of preparing emergency communications, comprising:

defining a plurality of communication channels including a first communication channel and a second communication channel for communication in the event of an emergency;

electronically storing a database of information for a plurality of contacts, including for each contact information sufficient to reach the contact via at least one of the communication channels;

electronically storing a first message suitable for transmission over the first communication channel; and

electronically storing a second message suitable for transmission over the second communication channel, where the second message is not suitable for transmission over the first communication channel.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first communication channel is a text-based channel, and the second communication channel is an audio channel.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the second communication channel is a voice channel.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein:

the storing of the first message comprises associating the first message with a first plurality of contacts whose information is stored in the database; and

the storing of the second message comprises associating the second message with a second plurality of contacts whose information is stored in the database

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

automatically transmitting the first message via the first communication channel to a first set of the contacts; and

automatically transmitting the second message via the second communication channel to a second set of the contacts.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first set of the contacts and the second set of the contacts are different.

19. A system for maintaining emergency contact information, comprising:

a database storing emergency contact information for a plurality of persons; and

a means for automatically generating a message to one of the persons when the person has failed to confirm or update the person'"'"'s emergency contact information for at least a first predetermined interval of time.