OHSU Alert
Emergency Mass Notification System
The OHSU Emergency Mass Notification System (OHSU ALERT) allows OHSU to notify Portland and\or West Campus students, faculty, staff, and the surrounding campus community, in the event of an emergency by sending a broadcast message via text message, pager, or both. Download Printable Version
What is OHSU Alert?
Situations Where OHSU Alert may be used
Your Responsibilities
Information, Privacy Protection, and Charges
OHSU ALERT Messages Examples
Testing the OHSU ALERT System
Important Notice
Your responsibilities:
You cannot receive OHSU ALERT messages unless:
- You have provided accurate or updated information about your text enabled cellular telephone.
- You are an active student at OHSU or an active OHSU employee at the time of the notification.
- Your mobile device service provider, account, and device itself are all functioning normally.
- Your mobile device accepts text messages (the system uses industry standard SMS text messaging protocol to send messages to your phone).
- Your Internet service provider, email application and/or spam filtering service is set to accept messages from the ohsu.edu domain.
How your contact information is provided:
Contact information for OHSU ALERT is taken directly from information provided by students, staff and faculty in existing systems (e.g., ISIS for students, SmartWeb for staff and faculty).
Privacy protections: Contact information collected for OHSU ALERT will not be shared with anyone outside of OHSU and will only be used for Official OHSU purposes.
Charges: OHSU ALERT will only be used for notification in emergency situations. On average, we expect the service will not be used more than 15 times per year, including routine testing.There may be SMS text messaging fees charged by your wireless carrier associated with the SMS text message notification from OHSU. You are responsible for charges made by service providers related to text messages and mobile phone calls. Contact your carrier about specific costs and plans.
What will be communicated in OHSU ALERT messages:
Messages will include an OHSU ALERT header, a location, some direction about action, and where more information can be found. Messages are deliberately short—80 characters or less—to accommodate most text devices.
LOCATION: Messages will include the location they pertain to, using campus and building codes.
ACTION: Messages will include some direction (e.g., stay in place, leave, etc).
For example:
"OHSU ALERT: Hill Campus: SJH stay in place, lock door until allclear. *See Email"
This message notifies individuals on the Marquam Hill Campus (HILL) that there is an emergency situation in Sam Jackson Hall (SJH) and indicates that individuals in Sam Jackson Hall should stay where they are and lock their door until the all clear text is received.
ACTION | UPDATES: If a situation continues for an extended time, there may be periodic updates sent via OHSU ALERT.
ACTION | ALL CLEAR: At the conclusion of any incident for which an OHSU ALERT message is sent, you will be sent an "All Clear" message. In the example above, the following "All Clear" text would indicate the situation was resolved and individuals on Marquam Hill (HILL) in Sam Jackson Hall (SJH) could move around freely:
"OHSU ALERT: Hill Campus: SJH situation resolved. All Clear. See Email."
*MORE INFORMATION: Most messages will indicate that additional information can be found in email. Receipt time for email messages is dependent on your service provider.
TESTING:
Testing the OHSU ALERT Emergency Notification System
OHSU ALERT will be tested at least annually. Additional tests may be conducted as part of drills, exercises, or as necessary to selected targeted groups. Any tests will be clearly identified as such in the OHSU ALERT message. For example:
"OHSU ALERT: This is a test of the OHSU ALERT system. No action required."
- OHSU SMS text messages delivered from the ALERT system are intended to be a best effort communication and represent just one component of the OHSU Emergency Mass Notification System.
- SMS text message notifications may be delayed by the carrier or not received during regional emergenciesor other periods of high messaging traffic.
- Third parties can send SMS text messages disguised as emergency alerts from OHSU and therefore you are urged toindependently verify the authenticity of any emergency alert that you receive.
- SMS text message order delivery is not always predictableand, therefore, a message may potentially be significantly delayed or not received.
- SMS text message notifications from OHSU will be displayedon your mobile device in the same manner as any other SMS text messages.
