Waitemata DHB is using smart page for nearly more than 2 years. All our junior doctors are currently provided with a Samsung galaxy phone which they can keep and have to return when their contract finishes. We haven’t had any major issues in relation with tracking /lost ones.
Re outage: we never had anything major since we started using smart page. However, some connection dropouts happens at times. ( Mostly wifi issues). We have a smart page coordinator who monitors the smart page workload, trouble shoots smart page related issues and also assists RMO’s within the senior nurse scope.
The obvious solution is a mesh network linking all the mobile phones of the institution via adhoc WiFi and Bluetooth. Pretty cutting edge (more a disaster zone type thing), and the only thing that would be needed is charged phones that already have the app installed.
I suspect that a landline calling system (all VOIP these days) would also fail in an outage like that - rendering pagers useless anyway.