It doesn't equal doom. As I said in another post somewhere else some schools evaluate in cycles....so you could be in the third (or fourth, or fifth) cycle. And not every faculty member will be involved in reading folders, usually its only a select few.
Who you should contact depends on how the school is set up. At a school like Harvard where its very decentralized calling the Admissions Office is the way to go, not the individual faculty or department. At a large school with a "graduate" school clearinghouse it may be better to contact the department.