Post on 14-Jun-2020
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: VA Personnel Accountability System
Industry Government
www.va.gov/
VA Nationwide Presence
• 700,000 VA personnel• 171 Medical Centers• 800 Outpatient, Community and-
Outreach Clinics• 126 Nursing Home Care Units• 35 Domiciliary Care Residences
Case Study
Case Study
The VA Implements AtHoc to Initially Protect 400,000 VA Personnel: Enterprise-wide deployment will scale to cover 700,000 over a five-year period
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a government-run military veteran benefit system with cabinet-level
status and the largest healthcare provider in the United States. The VA is committed to the medical treatment of
veterans and their families, providing a broad spectrum of health services, surgical services and rehabilitative care.
With 171 medical centers, more than 800 outpatient, community and outreach clinics, 126 nursing home care units,
35 domiciliaries and local offices, it is an extraordinarily large, dispersed organization with hundreds of thousands of
personnel across the United States.
The VA has deployed AtHoc’s enterprise-class networked emergency mass notification system: VA Personnel
Accountability System, known as VA-PAS. Fully integrated with the U.S. Navy’s Personnel Accountability and
Assessment System (PAAS), the VA-PAS solution meets unique emergency alerting, critical communications, and
personnel accountability needs such as:
• Unified emergency alerting – Integrated with existing notification protocols, the AtHoc solution provides
consistent, redundant emergency mass alerts to medical teams and first responders to accelerate incident
response
• Rapid, secure, and pervasive alerting – Distributed in real-time via all IP-enabled channels and devices:
mobile and smartphones, computers as intrusive desktop popups, email, fax, BlackBerry devices and SMS
text messages
• Potential latitude for extended platform capabilities – Integration with digital displays, indoor/outdoor
public address (PA) systems and other security systems, such as video surveillance, fire panels, IP Phones
(VoIP), and one-click emergency alerts
• Continuity of operations and patient care – Following any emergency, maintain communications while
incidents are resolved
• Personnel accountability – Bi-directional mass alert solution provides proactive assessment of personal
status and safety of medical staff and ability to perform patient care
• Response tracking and reporting – Alert recipients have multiple response options (as customized by
emergency managers) for acknowledgement, vital for situational awareness
• Personnel recall – Rapid recall of off-site medical personnel in the event of an emergency
• Operational notification – Available for shift/schedule changes, drug recall notification and critical system
outages
• Predefined scenarios tailored to the VA environment – Lends high level of efficiency and ease of
management of emergency notification response flow across the enterprise
• Connection to external alert sources – Real-time connectivity and alerting
• Regulatory compliance – Healthcare, government, and state regulations and guidelines, including National
Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 51
Case Study
U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs at a Glance
• 700,000 VA personnel
• 171 Medical Centers
• 800 Clinics
• 126 Nursing Home Care Units
• 35 Domiciliary Care Residences
Requirements• Enterprise-wide unified notification management
solution
• Integration with U.S. Navy Personnel
• Accountability and Assessment System (PAAS)
• Scalable to meet future mass notification system
(MNS) requirements
• On-site deployment enabling secure
• Protected Personal Information (PII)
• Capable of targeting specific location, group or
individual
• Continuity of operations and patient care in an
emergency
• Personnel accountability, situational awareness
capabilities
• Multiple, redundant notification channels and
devices
• Compliant with standard regulations, military and
federally mandated certifications
Solution: AtHoc Enterprise Edition• Integrates with U.S. Navy Personnel Accountability
and Assessment
• System (PAAS), yielding the VA Personnel
Accountability System (VA-PAS)
• Multi-tenancy capabilities target messages to
specific locations, groups, or individuals
• Pervasive alerting via all IP-enabled channels and
devices
• Secure private cloud deployment behind the firewall
delivers assurance of data protection
• Personnel accountability, tracking, reporting, and
situational awareness capabilities
• Protocol redundancy with reliable failover system
• Emergency scenarios are tailored to the healthcare
venue
• Meets all federal, state, and healthcare regulations
and requirements
Results• National adoption of VA-PAS personnel
accountability and notification solution
• Integration with Navy PAAS adds operational value
and substantial cost savings
• Rapid, pervasive mass notification in real-time via
multiple channels and devices
• Implementation protects hundreds of thousands of
VA personnel and patients
• Capabilities support VA’s mass notification and
accountability requirements
• Scalable solution meets current capacity and
supports future growth
• Failover capabilities deliver reliability and assured
continuity of operations, patient care, and patient
record access
• Full compliance with federal government, state and
healthcare regulations
• Successful participation in federally mandated
National Level Exercise (NLE)
Executive Summary
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, an enterprise
entity responsible for administering numerous programs
for veterans and their families, is also dedicated to
upholding medical care with a vast number of medical
facilities spanning the entire United States.
To advance their emergency notification standards, the
VA sought to integrate the established and proven U.S.
Navy Personnel and Accountability Assessment System
(PAAS) with an enterprise-class solution to deliver rapid,
secure, and pervasive alerts. The system would initially
protect more than 400,000 VA personnel in widely
dispersed areas across the country. Additionally, the
combined solution must be cost-effective with the ability
to scale to accommodate growth, leverage existing
notification protocols while fully complying with all health,
federal, and state regulations and requirements.
To adapt to such extensively distributed geo-locations,
the VA also required an enterprise-wide, centralized
architecture.Important to include were bi-directional
capabilities, enabling a high level of personnel accountability
and situational awareness for emergency managers.
All alert message content, private personnel and patient
information must be secured behind the firewall and
protected on an internal network. Given the serious nature
of the healthcare setting, a highly dependable, transparent
failover system must also be implemented for continuity of
operations, patient care, and patient record access.
Following rigorous selection assessment for the adoption of
a unified, secure, networked emergency mass notification
technology solution, integration with Navy PAAS system
and implementation, the VA turned to AtHoc.
Cost Savings
The U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs realized substantial cost savings by moving to an enterprise edition of AtHoc. This
consolidation removed redundant components within separate tenant units, unified management of mass alerts and
saved budget on software licenses and maintenance costs when integrating with the Navy’s PAAS. The result is the most
effective enterprise-wide mass notification capability with the best cost-to-benefit ratio.
The Challenge
Case Study
AtHoc’s innovative technology is protecting VA personnel
through the implementation of its unified emergency
mass notification system, powered by AtHoc. Deployed
in a secure private cloud, the enterprise-class solution has
been integrated with PAAS, the U.S. Navy’s established
personnel accountability system. The interoperability of
AtHoc has yielded the VA Personnel Accountability System
(VA-PAS): one ubiquitous system for all of VA.
VA-PAS is a robust IP-based emergency mass
communications and accountability solution for nationwide
support from a centralized location. VA-PAS enables rapid
alerts to computers as desktop popups, VA phones, mobile
and smartphones, e-mail, fax, BlackBerry devices, and
SMS texts.
AtHoc’s enterprise-class architecture with multi-tenancy
capabilities can isolate messages to specific locations,
groups, or individuals based on unique criteria. Targeted
alerts can be sent to police, fire, emergency management
services, or crisis management teams. Deployment will
initially protect 400,000 personnel and scale incrementally
over a 5-year period to cover over 700,000 employees for
end-to-end personnel accountability.
This solution fulfills VA’s mission for emergency notification
and recall. AtHoc’s 2-way communication supports the
VA’s situational awareness and accountability requirements
with alert response tracking and real-time personnel status
reporting. When a user acknowledges a message through
a response option, AtHoc IWSAlerts captures, tracks, and
stores the data in a central repository with timestamp and
delivery information. A synchronized dashboard displays
aggregated personnel data, letting emergency operators
trace alert progress during emergency situations and
practice drills.
Pre-defined emergency scenarios are tailored specifically
for medical and healthcare crises.The alerts describe
the threat, categorize the threat level and provide vital
instructions for taking appropriate action, streamlining the
alert process.
AtHoc’s powerful alerting features notify physicians, nurses,
medical staff, administrators, police and safety personnel,
and emergency personnel about an incident, and can also
monitor the status of the hospital’s business-critical patient
record system. Alerts are sent if the patient record system is
offline for maintenance or if a facility system outage occurs.
The medical facility can use alerts for critical notifications
about healthcare-related notices such as organ transplant
availability and status. Operational efficiencies are
enhanced when the AtHoc system is applied to business
processes such as work shift changes or shift cancellation
so personnel are able to make timely decisions, mitigating
labor disputes.
The AtHoc solution provides protocol redundancy with full
failover capabilities, connecting an end device to multiple
gateways allowing one gateway to take over for the other in
the event of system breakdown, assuring seamless failover
for a high level of reliability. The deployment behind the
firewall within the secure private cloud architecture achieves
optimal balance of efficiencies, privacy of sensitive user
data and data security.
Healthcare regulations and guidelines are also attained
with full adherence to government compliance standards,
OSHA, Joint Commission, the Privacy Act of 1974, section
508, NIST security certifications, HEA and Clery Act.
The system also meets National Security and Homeland
Security Presidential Directive (NSPD-51/HSPD-20),
enabling continuity of government (COG) to continue
essential VA operations during a catastrophic event.
VA-PAS has also successfully participated in the 2012
National Level Exercise (NLE), a congressionally mandated
competitive preparedness program for emergency events,
sponsored annually by FEMA. At its conclusion, VA-PAS
was judged as the “Best in Class” solution fully capable
of national deployment. The integrated solution effectively
enabled end-to-end case management, demonstrating the
crucial capabilities of initiating alerts, collecting responses
for personnel accountability, and generating reports –
fulfilling all federally mandated requirements.
The Solution Delivered
Case Study
Case Study
Solution• AtHoc Enterprise Edition
• Secure private cloud architecture
• Integration with Navy PAAS
• Rapid, pervasive alerts via IP network
• Full failover capabilities
• Fully compliant with government and healthcare
The VA is the first agency to integrate emergency
notification with full personnel accountability, creating
one ubiquitous incident management, notification
and accountability system for all employees. The VA
Personnel Accountability System (VA-PAS), powered
by AtHoc and integrated with Navy PAAS, meets the
VA’s current and future enterprise-wide requirements
for unified emergency notification, critical life safety
and personnel accountability. AtHoc’s enterprise-class
system leverages existing IT investments and saves
federal funds and resources by combining modern
commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies for
emergency communications with government off-the-
shelf (GOTS) software for personnel accountability in a
secure private cloud.
The VA-PAS emergency manager can use the networked
system to send notifications via desktop pop-ups with
audio alarm, telephony voice alerts, email, fax, and
text messages—to all targeted devices. Since a crisis
can happen in a heartbeat, this system enables rapid
emergency alerts to hundreds of thousands of VA
personnel and ensures a safe response.
As an example, a VA emergency manager can publish a
high wind warning to alert medical transport helicopters
about landing difficulties. Managers also can use the
notification system to recall medical staff to specific
facilities due to a large influx of patients. The emergency
notification system can also be used for facility safety to
notify personnel of dangers such as a fire, flooding, gas
leak, power outage or chemical spill.
The powerful administration and multi-tenancy
capabilities of the AtHoc solution supports all VA facilities
and organizations from a central unified system while
establishing a virtual private system for every medical
facility, clinic or region, suitable for local and specific
alerting needs.
The successful implementation of AtHoc has satisfied VA
requirements and supported accountability, situational
awareness and most importantly, positively impacts the
safety and security of all VA personnel and patients.
Conclusion
Case Study
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