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The NIH is instituting a new initiative, AlertNIH, to allow NIH employees and contractors to receive emergency information on personal, as well as NIH issued, communications devices on a 24 /7 basis. AlertNIH is a managed communications service that allows employees to instantly receive information anywhere, anytime, across most any device, including cell phones, work phones, home phones, work or personal email accounts, and pagers. While this type of service has been successfully utilized for more than a year by NIH emergency response and recovery personnel, and IC Crisis Response Teams, it is now being expanded to provide all NIH employees and contractors access to the notification system. AlertNIH allows the NIH, and the employee’s respective IC, to broadcast messages to all employees and contractors simultaneously, or to selected individuals or groups, in a faster, more efficient manner than the traditional mass notification methodology presently used.
There are many benefits to using AlertNIH. Messages are received within seconds of transmission and, since it is Web based, AlertNIH is unaffected by potential infrastructure failures on-campus. Employees will be notified of emergency situations which occur on the Bethesda campus and/or in NIH leased facilities, as well as updates as more information becomes available. Receiving information on personal communications devices may be especially helpful if an incident occurs during non-duty hours, and employees may need to be notified not to report to work the following day, or that they should report to an alternate worksite. A recent example was the water main rupture in Montgomery County which necessitated sending non-emergency employees home early on December 23 with the possibility of facility closures the next day. Had the decision been made after normal working hours to close NIH locations, employees may not have received the information through traditional notification methods. AlertNIH will also provide immediate information via personal cell phones and text devices to employees who may be away from their offices and computers during the workday and, therefore, may not see global emails in a timely manner.
AlertNIH will automatically be provided on government supplied communications devices (e.g., work phones, NIH email, and government issued cell phones and Blackberries) with no action required by the employee. However, Privacy Act requirements generally prohibit the NIH from collecting personal contact information. In order for employees and contractors to receive this AlertNIH information on personal devices (home phones, cell phones, home email), they will need to update their profile on the NIH Enterprise Directory (NED). In updating your profile, you select the devices on which you wish to receive emergency information. AlertNIH allows notifications to be received on five voice devices and five text devices, including NIH supplied equipment. To access your NED profile, login to https://ned.nih.gov/ned/ (NIH Only) and follow the instructions provided for “updating profile information”. This page will allow the employee to opt for having the contact information added to AlertNIH and will link to a second page where the individual’s personal notification devices may be selected.
AlertNIH is hosted by Send-Word-Now, a company which will not disclose confidential contact information to third parties. Send-Word-Now privacy policies may be viewed on http://sendwordnow.com/privacy.aspx. AlertNIH will be used by NIH and IC staff strictly for official government business. You will only receive “emergency notifications” relating to incidents that may affect you or your work location that need to be transmitted on a time-sensitive basis. Occasionally “test messages” may also be sent in order to ensure the system is working properly and to give participants the opportunity to view the system in operation. If notification time is not an issue, the NIH will typically utilize more traditional messaging procedures, such as global emails, so that personal communications devices will not be used unnecessarily. Personal contact information will only be accessible by the employee’s respective IC Emergency Coordinator and their administrative designees, and by NIH emergency management personnel. As always, if you transfer to another IC, or leave the NIH, your Administrative Officer will be responsible for either relocating or deleting your NED information, as appropriate.
AlertNIH is administered by the Office of Research Services, Division of Emergency Preparedness and Coordination (DEPC). If you have questions regarding this notification service, please contact the DEPC on (301) 496-1985.
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Contact Information
For questions, please contact:
Division of Emergency Preparedness and Coordination
301-496-1985
orsdepc@mail.nih.gov
For questions specific to your Institute or Center, please contact your Emergency Coordinator:
Emergency Coordinators by Institute/Center (PDF)
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