EmergencyOS Basic: How to use EmergencyOS

EmergencyOS Basic helps your site prepare for an emergency evacuation and allows you to conduct drills that support your ongoing emergency response planning. This article provides an overview of the features available on the Basic tier of EmergencyOS and explains how to configure your site, and start an evacuation.

EmergencyOS Basic overview

The following features are available to sites on the Basic tier of EmergencyOS

EmergencyOS Dashboard

The Dashboard is the landing page for EmergencyOS. It provides quick access to emergency actions, active incidents, and information about how prepared your sites are for emergencies.

• Start Emergency: Start an evacuation to notify employees and visitors.
• Run Drill: Practice your site’s emergency procedures without starting an emergency.
• Active Incidents: View evacuations that are currently in progress.
• System Health: Identify configuration issues that may affect your emergency preparedness, such as missing mustering points or emergency contacts.

Emergency profiles

An emergency profile contains the settings used to run an evacuation at your site, including the email notifications sent to employees and visitors when the evacuation starts and ends.

Each site on the Basic tier has one automatically created emergency profile. You can edit this profile to support your site’s emergency response process, including instructing employees and visitors to move to a safe location where Safety Officers can confirm their arrival.

To learn how to edit an emergency profile, see Edit your emergency profile.

Mustering events

The Mustering Events page contains records of evacuations at your sites. For each evacuation, you can view the following information:

• Date: The date the event occurred.
• Status: Whether the event is completed, in progress, or scheduled to start later.
• Emergency Type: Whether the evacuation is an emergency or drill.
• Site Name: The site where the event took place.
• Event Duration: How long the event lasted.
• Expected duration: The estimated amount of time evacuees should take to reach the mustering point.

You can also manually log events conducted outside of EmergencyOS to keep your records up to date. 

Signed In List

If your organization uses VisitorOS, the Signed In List displays visitors who are currently signed in across your organization’s sites. You can use this list to identify visitors who may need to be accounted for during an evacuation. To have this list automatically printed during an emergency or drill, see Automatically print a list of signed-in visitors.

To open the Signed In List, from the left sidebar in EmergencyOS, go to Manage > Signed In List.

Employee List

The Employee List automatically includes employees from your FacilityOS Address Book. Employees on this list can receive notifications when an evacuation starts and ends.

To add a new employee, add them to the Address Book. Add an employee directly to the Employee List only if they need to receive emergency notifications but should not appear as a searchable host in VisitorOS.

Drill reminders

If your site requires routine drills, you can set up reminders to notify selected users 30 days before the next drill is due. For more information, see Set up drill reminders.

Manage users and roles

EmergencyOS allows you to add an unlimited number of users and assign roles based on their responsibilities. For example, Site Administrators can manage emergency profiles and configure site settings, while Safety Officers can help ensure that employees and visitors have evacuated safely.

To learn more about managing users and roles, see the following articles.

• Add a user in EmergencyOS
• Assign a role to a user in EmergencyOS

Configure your site for an evacuation

Before starting an evacuation, complete the setup tasks below for your site. You will set up a mustering point and edit your emergency profile. If your site uses VisitorOS, you can also enable users to start evacuations from an onsite iPad and configure the VisitorOS printer to automatically print a list of signed-in visitors.

Set up your mustering point

A mustering point is a designated safe location where employees and visitors gather during an evacuation. Each site on the Basic tier can have only one mustering point.

1. From the left sidebar in EmergencyOS, click the Settings icon, then select Sites.
   
2. Select the site where you want to set up the mustering point.
   
3. Select the Emergency Settings tab. Then, under Mustering Points, click Configure.
   
4. Next to the mustering point, click the Edit icon to open the Edit Mustering Point side panel.
   

5. In the side panel, update any of the following information:

   • Name: Enter a clear name that helps employees and visitors identify the mustering point.
   • Address: Enter the address, then adjust the circle on the map to create the mustering area.
   • Estimated Time to Mustering Point in Minutes: Enter the amount of time employees and visitors are expected to need to reach the mustering point.
   • Safety Officer: Select the Safety Officers responsible for confirming that employees and visitors have arrived.

   

6. Click Save to close the side panel. Then, click Save in the upper-right corner of the page.

Edit your emergency profile

Review your site’s default emergency profile to ensure its name, visitor list settings, and email messages match your emergency response process.

1. From the left sidebar in EmergencyOS, click Manage, then select Emergency Profiles.
   
2. Select the site’s default emergency profile.
   
3. Update any of the following settings:
   • Emergency Profile Name: Enter a name for the profile.
     

   • Send List of Signed In Visitors to Host: If you have VisitorOS, choose one of the following options:

     • Host's Own Visitors Only: Each employee will receive a list containing only the visitors who selected them as their host.
     • All Site Visitors: Each employee in the Address Book will receive a list of all visitors currently signed in at the site.
     • Disabled: A list of signed in visitors will not be included in the emergency email notification.

     

   • Email - Start Messages and Email - End Messages: Turn on the email message you want to send, then click the Edit icon to make changes to the message. For information about email messages, see Configure emergency messaging for an emergency profile.
     
4. At the bottom of the page, click Save.

Allow evacuations from an onsite iPad

To allow users to start and end an evacuation from an onsite iPad, enable the feature for the site and create a four-digit PIN. Users must enter this PIN when starting or ending the evacuation.

1. Go to VisitorOS.
2. From the left sidebar, click the Settings icon, then select Sites.
   
3. Select the site where the iPad will be used for evacuations.
   
4. Select the Features tab.
   
5. At the bottom of the page, under Emergency Evacuation, click Configure to open the Emergency Evacuation side panel.
   
6. In the side panel, turn on Allow Evacuation Trigger from Kiosk. Then, in the PIN Code field, enter a four-digit PIN.
   
7. Click Save to close the side panel.

Automatically print a list of signed-in visitors

If your site uses VisitorOS and has visitor badge printing enabled, you can automatically print a list of signed-in visitors when an evacuation starts. Safety Officers can use the printed list to confirm that all visitors have reached the mustering point.

1. Go to VisitorOS.
2. From the left sidebar, click the Settings icon, then select Sites.
   
3. Select the site where you want to automatically print a list of signed-in visitors.
   
4. Select the Features tab.
   
5. At the bottom of the page, under Emergency Evacuation, click Configure to open the Emergency Evacuation side panel.
   
6. In the side panel, turn on Print Signed-In Visitor List Using VisitorOS printer (During Evacuation).
   
7. Click Save.

Start an evacuation

You can start an evacuation from the EmergencyOS Dashboard or an onsite iPad. When you start an evacuation, EmergencyOS creates an active incident and can notify employees and visitors using the messages configured in the emergency profile.

From the EmergencyOS Dashboard

1. From the left sidebar in EmergencyOS, click Dashboard. Then, in the upper-right corner, take one of the following actions:

   • To start an evacuation, click Start Emergency.
   • To practice your evacuation procedure, click Run Drill.

   

2. In the dialog that opens, fill in the following information:

   • Site: Select the site where the evacuation is taking place.
   • Select Profile: Select the site’s default emergency profile.
   • Send Notifications: Turn on Send Notifications so that employees and visitors receive an email alerting them to evacuate.
   • (Optional) Add Start Message Email: Enter additional information you want to include in the email alert, such as the reason for the evacuation.

   

3. Click Start Emergency or Start Drill.

From an onsite iPad

Make sure you have set up a four-digit emergency PIN for your iPad. For more information, see Allow evacuations from an onsite iPad.

1. On the VisitorOS Welcome screen, tap and hold the VisitorOS text in the bottom-left or right corner.
   
2. Enter the four-digit PIN.
   

3. Take one of the following actions:

   • To start an evacuation, tap Emergency.
   • To practice your evacuation procedure, tap Drill.

   

4. fill in the following information:

   • Emergency Profile: Select the site’s default emergency profile.
   • Email Additional Message (Optional): Enter additional information you want to include in the email alert, such as the reason for the evacuation.

   

5. Tap Start.
   

End an evacuation

When the evacuation is complete, end the active incident from the EmergencyOS Dashboard or the onsite iPad.

From the EmergencyOS Dashboard

1. From the left sidebar in EmergencyOS, click Dashboard. Then, in the Active Incidents section, click the flag icon next to the evacuation you want to end.
   
2. In the confirmation dialog, click Confirm.
   

From an onsite iPad

1. On the iPad, tap Finish Evacuation in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
   
2. Enter the four-digit PIN.
   
3. In the confirmation dialog, tap Confirm.