ExpressAgainThe tap: the Get Help Now band on the Emergency page, or I need help now on the SOS card, speaks out loud at once. The screen then says Sending a help alert in 5 with a big Cancel button. Cancel within those five seconds and nothing is sent; the Emergency page notes the cancelled tap on that device only. After five seconds the alert is created. A second tap while an alert is open joins the same alert instead of starting another.
The Critical phrases: in the phrase library (the ICU, hospice, dementia, head and neck, and ALS phrases), tapping I can't breathe, Please get my nurse now, I'm choking or I'm bleeding speaks it and then asks, in large letters, Also alert my family? with two big buttons, Yes, alert my family and No. It never alerts by itself; Yes starts the same five-second countdown.
Who gets the first alert: the account owner, every family member with the caregiver role, and the Home Team professional on shift right now: clocked in, or scheduled for a shift that covers this moment. They get a phone notification (when they turned notifications on), a text (when a phone number is on file) and an email. Friends and the wider circle are never alerted, and neither are the Care Team clinicians.
The ladder: if no one answers within three minutes (the circle can choose from 2 to 10), the backup contacts get a text and an automated phone call that says the alert slowly, twice, and then: Press 1 if you are on the way. The backup contacts are the Emergency contacts 1 to 3 on the profile, in that order. If there is still no answer after three more minutes, the text and the call go out once more, and the patient's screen (while the app is open on it) says, large and out loud: No one has answered yet. Call 911 now, with a Call 911 button. The app never calls 911 by itself.
Answering: anyone who was alerted can answer. The link in the text, the email or the notification opens the alert with one big I'm on it button; opening the link changes nothing until the button is pressed. Pressing 1 on the automated call answers too, and so does I'm on it on the alert page in the app. The first answer stops the ladder, the patient's screen says who is on the way (and speaks it once), and the others who got a phone notification hear who is on it.
Closing it: whoever runs the account, a caregiver, or the professional on shift closes the alert on the alert page with what happened (Needed the bathroom, Pain, Fall, Breathing, Called 911, False alarm) and an optional note. It then shows in the Emergency page's activity, a short note goes to the care-team feed (when it happened, who answered, how it was closed), and the people a phone notification already reached are told it was closed.
What the messages say: the patient's first name, that Get Help Now was pressed, the time, the link, and If this is life-threatening, call 911. Never a diagnosis, a medicine, a reading or the closing note. Texts about a help alert go to the people on the alert who have a phone number on file, even if they did not turn on circle texts, because they are about an emergency; a number that replied STOP is not texted, and every text still says Reply STOP.
Settings: on the Emergency page, whoever runs the account and caregivers find Emergency alerts: today's first-alert names (set by the rules above), the backup contacts with their phone numbers (add, remove, move up or down, up to three), the minutes before escalating, and each person's line: notifications on or off, texts, email, calls. Send a test alert sends a clearly marked TEST, the same way as a real alert, to everyone on the ladder, with This is a test in every message and no care-team note; End the test closes it.
Phone notifications for help alerts are always on while notifications are on for that phone: quiet at night and Pause for a week do not hold them. The only way to stop them is to turn notifications off on that phone.