Emergency calls depend on the right people receiving critical information quickly and being able to respond without delay.
Traditional crash bleeps have supported this process for decades, but they offer limited visibility. Switchboard operators may be unable to confirm whether an alert has reached the required role, whether the device is working or whether the recipient is responding. Where several emergencies happen at once, the limitations of one-way communication can become even more apparent.
Digital emergency alerting gives healthcare organisations a clearer way to mobilise teams, track acknowledgement and coordinate action across sites.
Moving beyond crash bleeps
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust introduced Alertive as a digital alternative to legacy emergency communication systems.
The organisations initially ran Alertive and the existing systems in parallel, allowing teams to test the new process and build confidence before withdrawing crash bleeps.
John Wintour-Pittom, Head of Operations for Telecoms, explained:
In late November 22, we started dual running by broadcasting emergencies on Alertive and the legacy systems simultaneously. Alertive was faster at broadcasting and gave the Switchboard confidence that the roles required for the emergency were receiving messages through the acknowledgement feature. We ended dual running by February 23 for one acute site and June 23 for the other six sites, achieving a long-held ambition to be bleep-free. Our Operators also love that if they ever had to evacuate, they pick up their departmental mobiles and can activate emergency teams from those devices on the move.
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust also replaced its bleeps, including those used for emergency and 2222 calls.
Helen Pardoe, Chief Clinical Information Officer, said:
We have removed all of our bleeps, including for emergency alerts or 2222s. Since we have removed our bleeps entirely, we have had no significant incidents due to the change and our on-call teams are better equipped to share information, respond faster and are more organised.
These implementations show that emergency communication can move away from dedicated pager hardware when the transition is carefully planned, tested and supported.
Creating visibility across the response
With a traditional bleep, the sender may know that an alert has been transmitted but have limited visibility over who received it or whether the required role is available.
This can create uncertainty during urgent situations. A lack of response may mean that the recipient is busy, the device is not working, the wrong person has been contacted or the message has not reached its destination.
Alertive enables emergency alerts to be directed to defined roles and responder groups. Delivery and acknowledgement can be tracked, giving switchboard and clinical teams greater visibility over who has received an alert and whether further escalation is required.
Organisations can also configure escalation routes where acknowledgement thresholds are missed. This helps emergency communication follow the required pathway rather than relying on repeated calls or assumptions about who is carrying a working device.
A digital platform can support several emergency events at the same time and maintain a record of the communications associated with each alert. This gives organisations more information for audit, reporting and pathway improvement.
The platform can also extend beyond emergency calls. At Imperial, teams have used Alertive to support areas including maternity, trauma and Hospital at Night, helping coordinate handovers, huddles and other time-sensitive activity.
The measured impact
Evidence gathered across NHS organisations has demonstrated improvements in the delivery and response to urgent communication.
At Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, 99% of emergency alerts were delivered in under one minute. The previous process could take six minutes to broadcast one emergency call and up to 12 minutes when a second call entered the queue.
At Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the average response time through Alertive was 2.2 minutes. During an earlier parallel test, the average response time to a bleep was approximately 9.35 minutes.
Testing at another NHS Trust found that fewer than 1% of digital alerts received no response, compared with 14.5% of bleeps where the recipient did not successfully contact the sender.
These results demonstrate the value of giving teams the context, visibility and acknowledgement that one-way crash bleeps cannot provide.
The wider benefit comes from connecting emergency communication with the roles, workflows and information surrounding the response. Staff can see who is responsible, understand what is required and coordinate action through the same platform.
Moving away from crash bleeps therefore represents more than a hardware replacement. It gives healthcare organisations an opportunity to improve how critical information moves between people, teams and services.
With dual running, clinical involvement and a phased implementation plan, Trusts can test emergency pathways before switching off legacy systems. This supports a safer transition and gives staff confidence in the new way of working.
Alertive connects people, information and priorities so healthcare teams can work as one. Through priority-led alerting, acknowledgement tracking, escalation and role-based communication, it helps organisations build greater visibility across emergency response.
