Emergency Info Sharing with First Responders Best Practices

When disaster strikes - whether it is a building fire, medical emergency, active threat, natural disaster, or otherwise - the key to saving lives and property is what happens in the first few minutes. That is why Emergency Info Sharing with First Responders: Protocols & Tech has become more important than ever. Facility professionals are now required to provide the right Fire, Police and EMS responders with timely, accurate and relevant information about a building and its occupants within minutes of an alert. For ARC Facilities and our clients in every industry, the protocols and technology behind effective emergency communication systems have become paramount to providing safe and reliable facilities services.

The Importance of Emergency Info Sharing

Emergency Info Sharing with First Responders: Protocols & Tech Quick and easy information sharing between multiple individuals and organizations during an emergency is critical to prevent a small problem from becoming catastrophic. When Seconds Count: Speedy/Easy Campus Mapping, Emergency Contact Information Sharing & Notification between First Responders and building occupants or managers can literally save lives and property. For schools, hospitals, government buildings, city academies, community arts centers, and large commercial office buildings, having access to up-to-date facility information on hand can save lives and property.

For firefighters, police, and health responders, lacking ready access to critical documents such as building evacuation plans, fire alarm and other system panels, utility cutoff locations and facilities’ inventories of hazardous materials, can be devastating. Without these documents, response efforts can be impeded by blind searches for relevant information which may be outdated or dispersed across various departments or persons. Sharing emergency information has become a top priority in recent years, and is now at the root of efficient, effective, and timely response methods as well as compliance with local, state, and federal regulations and laws.

For facilities managers this means moving beyond just checking off boxes in a compliance checklist, and creating an open, constantly updated reservoir of critical information - always available, always current. See how your organization stacks up when it comes to emergency preparedness. Check out our Emergency Information solutions and request a free demo today.

Challenges in Communicating with First Responders

Efforts to achieve Emergency Info Sharing with First Responders: Protocols & Tech have potential to hit road-bumps, however. These can stem from reliance on outdated processes and manual entry, communication breakdowns, and different formats of data and information.

Physical barriers and communication breaks occur when information is siloed in paper binders and legacy computer systems that cannot be accessed by responders in the field. Language barriers and technical jargon often exist between facilities staff and emergency teams until an unexpected emergency occurs. At that time, consistent, secure, and mobile-ready communication becomes a priority that requires new tools and processes.

Emergency info sharing requires a clear process that goes beyond the protocols to the technology. This includes an established way to share information, with the appropriate people receiving the appropriate details in the correct order. Once that is in place, effective technology can quickly disseminate critical information via multiple platforms and devices in an instant, secure, and mobile-ready format.

Key elements of contemporary protocols include:

• Full contact rosters - Now teams and administrators know who to call in case of bad weather!

• Pre-populated information packets for common emergency situations
• Regular information updates and audits for accuracy.

• Access floor plans, shutoff locations and hazardous materials information from any mobile device at anytime.

With our fully integrated solutions, facilities can store all of their documents in one place making it easier and faster for management and outside responders to have access to the most current versions of the information. Our Digital Building Plans stores all of the facility’s plans and diagrams as well as key floor and section views, such as Exit Diagrams and Security Floor Plans. These views are essential during a Fire or Security Emergency when facilities teams and responders need to know the most current information about a building’s floor plan. Read more about how our customers in School Facility Management and Higher Education Facility Management have addressed similar challenges. Read our Facilities Customer Stories.

Current Best Practices for Data Sharing

Learn about emerging best practices for managing your list, granting role-based access, and more. Our experience shows that the organizations that respond best to challenges and crises are those that have developed procedures for data management, provided role-based access to key systems and data, and developed flexible multichannel solutions. Here are a few steps that your organization can take to achieve success like this.

• Pre-incident planning and periodic Code Red drills with responding emergency services.

• Digital registers or databases, whether paper-based or computerised, containing details of all facilities and brought up-to-date as necessary
• Automated updates to those who need to know when your Emergency, Plan or Contacts change.

• Integration of application /data into the mobile app to allow vital information to be accessed at the scene of the accident/release.

Technological Advances in Emergency Communication

For those interested in learning more about innovation in emergency information technology, Innovation in emergency information technology is transforming how we manage Emergency Info Sharing with First Responders: Protocols & Tech.

Mobile Access - Share floor plans, contact lists, and utility shut-off information with authorized building users who can update information in real-time using mobile devices. Emergency Information - Enable any authorized user to quickly locate crucial building information and people during an emergency. Managers will have access to critical information anywhere, anytime, without having to refer to binders or access a PC during an emergency.

Other technological trends shaping the future include:

• Files encrypted and shared safely via industry-leading methods to keep unauthorised people from viewing your files.

• Automatic data synchronization. Work from the most current documents anytime.
• Third-party system integration capabilities that would support respondent agencies having access to building plans, either prior to an incident or during an incident, by certified personnel.

• Easy management of role-based sharing permissions with relevant agencies (Law Enforcement, Fire, Medical etc.) to reduce the risk of sensitive information disclosure.

As an ARC Facilities customer, you can benefit from the power of digital technology to alleviate confusion and lost time during tough emergencies. Please click on the link to the legacy document services page related to Emergency Plans and Architectural drawings for Legacy Facilities and New Facilities to read how ARC Facilities can help you protect your historic and current documents associated with Compliance as well as other building information.

Future Trends in Emergency Info Sharing Tech

Emergency Info Sharing with First Responders: Protocols & Tech is rapidly evolving. Expect more integrated, user-friendly technology solutions – particularly in cloud-based platforms. Data interoperability will be more critical now to ensure public and private facility personnel are operating as a unified team of first responders.

Artificial intelligence/machine learning will enable facilities management professionals to utilize AI-powered analytics to develop and fine-tune emergency preparedness by automatically updating and removing obsolete and duplicate contact information as necessary. In the future, predictive quality analytics will even be able to identify trends in incidents occurring on-site and make strategic recommendations to facilities management professionals about how best to update their emergency response plans and protocols. For those developing emergency procedures, AI-powered conversational platforms will integrate with existing communication systems to enable voice command and hands-free retrieval of information when responders need to keep their hands on whatever tools, equipment and persons they are trying to rescue to most effectively respond to an emergency.

ARC Facilities is continually developing new and innovative tools that support Smarter, Safer and More Collaborative Emergency Response solutions. See the latest updates on all our solutions on our product overview page.

Best Practices and Security in Emergency Data Sharing

Among other considerations, in Emergency Info Sharing with First Responders: Protocols & Tech, the security of participants’ sensitive information - such as building plans and roster lists - is paramount. Floor plans and contact lists are assets in and of themselves that can have value as stolen data, and thus must be protected through effective access controls and monitoring in order to limit the pool of potential recipients to trusted partners and first responders. Best practices for emergency data sharing and security.

• Role-based access management; users only have access to information folders or documents for which they have been authorised to view.

• Passwords and other system credentials managed with regular audits to detect vulnerabilities and breaches.
• End-to-end encryption of shared documents, particularly when moving documents outside of your organisation.

• Change logs and usage statistics reports that will help you to detect unusual activity.

Compliance: Meeting or Exceeding Security and Privacy Regulations ARC Facilities’ Emergency Information software maintains the highest standards of data security and privacy, and our technical staff and customer support team strive to provide ARC Facilities clients - across all industries - within commercial, industrial, government, and financial institutions sectors - secure and reliable systems, as well as prompt service and support.

RS: Develop usage guidelines and review facility functionality on an ongoing basis. Security concerns? Need advice on how to protect this data? Contact us. Extensive resources and user assistance available on our customer portal.

Introduction

Emergency Info Sharing with First Responders: Protocols & Tech. Emergency Info Sharing with First Responders: Protocols & Tech provides the foundation for timely, effective, coordinated, and indeed life-saving crisis response by organizing facilities staff and first responders alike into an empowered team, working together as a single unit to address emergencies. Staff will know what to do, and first responders will receive the information they need in the moments that matter most through updated, easily accessible protocols and smooth digital information sharing. Improved compliance and processes instill confidence in your staff during the most urgent of situations.

ARC Facilities specialises in delivering solutions to the emergency communication challenge. Our solutions include digital building plans, construction project information, operation and maintenance documentation and more. Our solutions help to distribute critical building information to the people who need it most in the shortest amount of time. By providing a platform to efficiently and effectively distribute crucial information, we can help to aid digital transformation and enable those who require the information in emergency situations to act quickly and effectively.

You're upgrading Emergency Info Sharing with First Responders: Protocols & Tech ? We'd like to invite you to learn more about the Arc Facilities solution and would be happy to setup a demo and/or consult. Let's work together to create safer facilities, healthier work environments and communities for all stake holders to thrive in. Contact ARC Facilities today to get started!

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