Health Alert Network

The Kentucky Health Alert Network (HAN) is the primary communication and collaboration tool for public health in Kentucky.  HAN is a secure, Internet-based system that provides the ability to instantly be in contact and work together with other government and non-government personnel playing a role in public health.  HAN provides simple tools for alerting, sharing and reviewing documentation and retrieving contact information.  The system is administered at the state level as well as at the local level by Health Department Public Health Preparedness Planners.  To learn more about becoming a participant please Contact Us.

The innovative role based directory allows for appropriate people to be notified of a public health event without specific knowledge of who each individual is by name.  Each participant in HAN specifies the manner in which they prefer to be contacted based on the alert level.  Each participant may specify up to five methods of contact for each priority level of alert including the following: work phone, work email, home phone, cell phone, alternate phone, alternate email, alpha pager and none.  Alert priorities are High (public health emergency) Medium (public health advisory) and Low (public health information or update).  The alerts can be sent by participants to utilize profiles or work email.  The system utilizes a text-to-speech engine to alert participants via phone.  For security, the system will not read the participant the message until their personal four digit pin is entered following the standard introduction. 

Current contact data is paramount in the occurrence of a public health event.  To maintain current contact data, participants maintain their own profiles and the system requires all participants to verify their profile every 30 days. 

HAN contains an important document collaboration tool called the Document Library.  The Document Library eliminates the problems associated with working on a document via email.  The Document Library provides the ability to work on the development of a document efficiently using check-in, check-out and publish status with version control. 

Participants can securely share, review or modify any type of document with no size limitations.  An approval routing feature can be implemented for posting documents so that documents that require certain approvals during development can systematically receive those approvals.  Online discussions are also available for each document that is stored in the Document Library.  Another valuable instrument within the Document Library is the Subscription service allowing participants to choose to be notified when changes are made to a document or folder eliminating the need to periodically check for changes.  Documents may also be faxed directly from the Document Library. 

Have you ever needed to contact someone with a role in public health and not been able to determine their name or contact information?  The Public Health Directory provides a ‘phonebook’ for participants of HAN.  The role based directory is based on responsibilities which could be performed during a public health event.  The contact information is provided by the actual participants when they complete their personal profiles.  Participants are only able to view non-work contact information if they have been given access to alert the participants in a specific role.