About VAMC alerts and operating statuses
The Veteran-centered purpose
“As a Veteran, family member, or caregiver looking for information on my VA health care system site, I want to be made aware of any facility closures or emergency situations that might affect how I get care.”
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↓ Communicating urgent information
Communicating urgent information
As an editor for a VAMC site, you may need to inform Veterans and other audiences about emergencies or other critical situations that may affect operations at your health care system. You'll use the content types "System Banner Alert with Situation Updates" and "VAMC Facility" to do so.
Use banner alerts and facility operating statuses only for critical situations, including:
- Weather emergencies affecting travel to your system’s locations, such as severe thunderstorms
- Disasters and states of emergency affecting your VAMC’s local area
- Power outages that may cause facility closures
- An immediate public health emergency or other crisis that impacts Veteran's care and safety. Note that facilities should use the COVID-19 facility status to communicate health protection guidelines related to COVID-19.
Don't use banner alerts for promotional purposes. Overuse of banners can lead to "banner fatigue," causing Veterans and other audiences to start to ignore critical messages.
System banner alerts
Banner alerts appear at the top of the site
Use a banner alert when it's important that all site visitors see a critical message, such as information about weather emergencies or other situations affecting operations across the entire VAMC system. The alert will appear at the top of every page on your site, after the content release finishes, which can take about 30 to 45 minutes. Each content release processes all published content on Drupal.
The banner alert also links to the Operating Status page, where the alert content will be posted, along with any situation updates you add as the situation evolves.
If you’re using a system banner alert to communicate about an emergency situation, also update affected facilities operating statuses.
Sharing banner alerts across multiple VAMCs
If you’re managing information on a situation that affects multiple VAMC systems, you can reuse a single banner alert for multiple systems. If you manage alerts in this way, you won’t be able to add situation updates customized for each VAMC system.
Situation updates keep people informed along the way
After creating the banner alert, you can add timestamped situation updates to keep people informed as the situation evolves. You’ll also have the option to send out an email notification with each situation update. You can give site visitors the option to sign up for emergency notifications on the facility's operating status page.
Editing banner alerts in the CMS
How to edit a system banner alert
Facility operating statuses
The facility operating status answers the question, ‘Is it open?’
The facility operating status lets people know if there are changes to the normal hours for a hospital or clinic in your VAMC system, or if there is special temporary information visitors should know about a particular facility.
Don't use the facility operating status to share information about masks, screening, or visitor policies due to COVID-19. This information is now covered in the COVID-19 health protection guidelines.
The facility operating status will appear in two locations:
1. In the "Location and contact information" part of the facility’s location page
2. In the "Facility operating status" part of the Operating Status page
