I’m afraid to turn on Do Not Disturb.
I have young kids and elderly parents. Very much in the sandwich generation.
When I’m in the OR or busy and an unknown number comes in, I have no idea. Is this my kid’s school? My dad’s doctor? Something urgent? Or just spam?
So my wife and I built StatPhone (https://statphone.com).
It gives you dedicated phone numbers you can share with the people and places that may need to reach you urgently. When someone calls one, it can ring multiple people at once, break through Do Not Disturb, and if no one answers, escalate to others.
For example, we give one to our kid’s school. It rings both of us at the same time so someone alway picks up.
Or we can give one to my dad’s doctor. It rings me and my sister first, and if we do not pick up, it rolls to my wife and brother in law.
No matter what number they call from, it shows up clearly as something like “Dad Emergency” or “Kids School” on our phones.
If no one answers, it uses its own voicemail, transcribes it, and sends it to everyone. We can still see who actually called via text or the dashboard.
At first we built it for ourselves, but figured it might be useful to other families too.
PS- recently someone brought to our attention that this could be useful for patients on transplant list. This will be worthwhile if we even help one transplant patient!
