At ReturnSafe, we work with organizations across Business, Education, Manufacturing, Sports & Entertainment, Hospitality and beyond. This month, we collected a few stories to share how our customers are using ReturnSafe’s BioSecurity platform to return to work.
Video: How this School Returned to Campus
Hear from Strake Jesuit College Preparatory on why they chose our solution to keep students, faculty and staff safe while returning to campus. Watch our video
Case Study: Automating Daily Health Checks in Nursing Homes
Nursing homes were the hardest hit during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Find out why Redstone Presbyterian SeniorCare chose ReturnSafe to protect their community. Download the case study
Webinar Replay: Why You Need a Campus-Wide BioSecurity Plan
Hear from Stephen Alderman, Vice President & General Counsel for South Texas College of Law Houston on how his team is using our BioSecurity platform to keep their doors open. Watch the webinar replay
Are you looking for screening and contact tracing tools for your organization? Book a demo with someone on our team to try our tools! Learn how it works.
We are excited to announce our first virtual event! On September 23rd, we will be hosting a free webinar to discuss how South Texas College of Law Houston implemented ReturnSafe to keep their school open and safe. Register below!
UPCOMING: Case Study Webinar
Join us on September 23rd to learn how South Texas College of Law Houston is utilizing ReturnSafe to provide daily health screening and digital contact tracing to ensure student, faculty, and staff safety amidst COVID-19. Register here
3 Return to Work Plans From Industry Leaders
Businesses are implementing new health and safety measures to address the pandemic. These organizations crafted reopening plans specific to the needs of their industry. Read more
How Will You Meet The CDC Guidelines For Returning To Work?
How is your solution meeting the CDC’s key reopening criteria? Our solution can help you check their boxes! Read more
Why Your Business Needs a Contact Tracing Application
What steps is your organization taking to prevent an outbreak? Let us help you create a plan to stop COVID-19 transmission in its tracks. Read more
Are you looking for screening and contact tracing tools for your organization? Book a demo with someone on our team to try our tools! Learn how it works.
The following post summarizes key findings from the article ‘Impact of delays on effectiveness of contact tracing strategies for COVID-19: a modeling study’ published by The Lancet Public Health. The piece is written by Dr. Mirjam E Kretzschmar, Dr. Ganna Rozhnova, Dr. Martin C J Bootsma, Dr. Michiel van Boven, Dr. Janneke H H M van de Wijgert, and Dr. Marc J M Bonten. Read on to explore the importance of a contact tracing solution in the effectiveness of containing the spread of COVID-19.
The article explored the impact of delays in tracing and testing to effective contact tracing. Additionally, it examined and compared the effectiveness of manual contact tracing and mobile app-based contact tracing.
You do not want a delay in COVID-19 testing
It is important to minimize the time between symptom onset and receiving a positive test result in order to prevent further infections. The article asserts that minimizing testing delay is crucial to improving contact tracing effectiveness, assuming immediate isolation following a test result. Our daily screening application will prompt employees to stay at home and see a doctor immediately after they report COVID-19 symptoms. Additionally, users can directly report positive test results within the application to notify administrators.
You do not want a delay in contact tracing
Decreasing the amount of time it takes to trace contacts is incredibly important to reducing overall COVID-19 transmission. The article found that shortening this time interval boosted the efficacy of contact tracing. In the study, they assumed the person immediately sought testing and then isolated, if positive. Our contact tracing application allows users to log who they’ve been in contact with. Additionally, through our BioSecurity Portal, administrators can see who a positive case has been in contact with, automatically via Bluetooth tracking and can then notify those who were potentially exposed.
App-Based Contact Tracing vs Manual Contact Tracing
Overall, they found mobile app-based contact tracing to be more effective than conventional contact tracing because of the application’s quick response capabilities. One interesting case they did not study in this piece was a hybrid approach with conventional and app-based contact tracing systems. ReturnSafe’s solution provides you with an app-based solution. However, through our Partnership with TaskUs, you also have access to manual tracing options. With our solution, your administrators have all the tools they need to effectively control and contain the COVID-19 outbreak and keep employees safe.
What factors may negatively impact contact tracing?
The article also identified hindrances to effective contact tracing. Amongst these were a significant number of undiagnosed or asymptomatic cases and untraceable contacts.
How can you reduce the impact of these factors?
App-based screening and contact tracing solutions can increase the number of traceable contacts and diagnosed cases. However, to do this, there must be substantial participation, application acceptance, and sustained usage. What does that mean? Your employees should feel the application is built for their safety to encourage user participation. Our solution is crafted by experts in UX design and app development to optimize the users experience. How do you know if your application is widely accepted? Through our BioSecurity Portal administrators can directly monitor screening compliance.
Our goal is to empower the employees and the organization to stay safe. So we created features that allow users and administrators to maximize the effectiveness of contact tracing. Every measure your organization takes to prevent infection will lower the overall number of cases and contain the outbreak.
So, let’s start now! Book a demo to learn more about how our solution can protect your organization to combat COVID-19.
When looking for a reopening solution for your organization, you need to know how it will meet CDC guidelines for returning to work. The key criterion for such organizations are outlined in the CDC’s ‘Restart Readiness Checklist’. Let’s see how our solution can help you tick those boxes.
CDC Guidelines For Returning To Work
Monitor federal, state, and local public health communications about COVID-19
In order to stay ahead of COVID-19, you need access to up to date federal, state, and local COVID-19 information and guidelines. Our experts are constantly monitoring the situation and we will ensure that you are in compliance with all necessary guidelines.
Ensure workers have access to current information
Keeping your employees informed gives them peace of mind knowing that you are looking out for their best interests. When an administrator receives a COVID-19 update they can notify their employees and/or adjust their workplace policies if needed via our screening and contact tracing app.
Check local public health information and the CDC COVID-19 website daily, or as needed depending on local conditions.
An effective solution is localized and customizable. Our platform’s policy recommendations are informed by local public health guidance.
Reinforce how employees can protect themselves and others from COVID-19 by communicating:
If you have symptoms, notify your supervisor and stay home.
If you are sick, follow CDC recommended steps, and do not return to work until you meet criteria to discontinue home isolation.
An effective solution educates and empowers employees to monitor and protect themselves. Our daily screening app generates customized employee recommendations daily. Users receive reminders to record symptoms in a quick and easy-to-use daily screening survey. After completing the screening process the app generates a recommendation to come to work or stay home based on the policies your organization has in place. Employers can fine-tune sick employees’ recommendations to meet their organization’s preferences and align with CDC guidelines for returning to work in their area.
Plan for conducting daily in-person or virtual health checks (e.g. symptom and/or health screenings) before employees enter the facility.
The CDC guidelines for returning to work recommend that organizations implement a daily screening protocol for employees to follow before they enter the workplace. In-person screenings invite workplace exposure to symptomatic employees. Our digital screening solution eliminates this risk by giving people the ability to screen before they leave their house via our mobile app.
Establish social distancing policies and practices
Utilizing Bluetooth technology, our app has a social distance alarm feature that can buzz to let employees know if they have come within 6 feet of another person for more than 1-minute. This helps users monitor their behavior and ensure they are practicing social distancing throughout the workday.
Develop an action plan for suspected/confirmed cases
In order to effectively combat the pandemic you must have a plan in place to respond to sick employees and/or confirmed COVID-19 cases. This plan must ensure infected employees isolate and potentially exposed employees are contacted. Our BioSecurity Portal allows you to immediately alert exposed employees while maintaining the infected employee’s confidentiality. If someone tests positive for COVID-19 our solution automatically triggers contact tracing based on the bluetooth data collected and the symptom screening information to discover who is potentially at risk for transmission.
What should you be looking for in a Return to Work app? This is new no matter your industry and understanding the options for Return to Work tools can be difficult and the literature can be overwhelming, but the bottom line is ensuring employee safety. As you search for solutions to help bring your team back to work during COVID-19, we recommend ensuring your return to work app follows these best practices.
Return to work apps need to be easy to use
A good Return to Work app is easy to use. Daily screening apps do what they were meant to do only if people fill out the survey every single day. So a straightforward, easy-to-use application encourages compliance with company policies. When the app is simple to use, your team won’t mind incorporating it into their workday.
They must also remind employees to follow the guidelines
The app must communicate effectively with users. What does this look like? This means the app should remind users to fill out their daily health screening. This means that the app should remind users to remain at least 6 feet away from others. And this means that the app should alert people if they were exposed to someone who tested positive.
Comply with all regulations and health guidelines
The ideal return to work app allows administrators to customize survey questions according to CDC, OSHA, state, and local health and safety policies, as well as industry standards. The solution should make it easy for you to comply and track all necessary information, while also taking a pragmatic approach to user privacy and security.
For a reopening to be sustainable and effective, employees must feel comfortable with the technology they are using to report, monitor, and alert others of their symptoms and behaviors in the workplace. Having an app that prompts screening and distancing is the best way to get ahead of the disease.
Return to work apps need to take privacy just as seriously as safety
When we consider the application from the user’s perspective it is paramount to take into account privacy. Users need to know that their information is secure if they are going to trust it. They want to know that the tracking data is confined to the workplace and that it is clear how their contact tracing and screening data will be used.
When it comes to data protection, privacy, & security measures, look out for the following keywords to ensure your application is following best practices and industry standards.
We are living in an uncertain and fast-changing time. Does your organization have a system in place to prepare, prevent, and rapidly respond to biological threats to keep your team safe? Book a demo to learn more about how ReturnSafe’s solution can help.
Monitor federal, state, and local public health communications about COVID-19
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