How to Purchase the Right Health Screening Solution for Your Business
The workplace has always been a balance of productivity and safety. Common sense safety practices and regulatory solutions have been common place since well before OSHA’s creation in 1971. For the last half century most industries have had stability and status quo in terms of safety procedures and standards. Then covid-19 hit. Suddenly, every single business had to figure out a brand new safety strategy. Local, state and national governments often had different requirements and many of those changed on a frequent basis as our understanding of how the virus spreads changed.
The one tool that almost every business implemented in some way was health screening. Most people have had someone take their temperature manually or stood in front of an automated thermometer. You’ve left your name and number on paper for contract tracing, signed in and out using everything from a pencil to a kiosk and answered questions on symptoms. You want to keep your employees and visitors as safe as possible while also mitigating workplace safety risks and complying with local recommendations. But what is the best solution for an ever changing world with so many variations? This article is meant to be an education tool to help you make the best possible health screening choice for your organization.
The Must Haves
A complete health screening solution should incorporate temperature checks, health questionnaires and vaccination or testing management. Together, these three procedures provide extensive protection against community spread in the workplace and satisfy almost all of the strictest local and state orders.
Temperature screening is an excellent way to keep sick employees and visitors at home. In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, it’s easy to ignore smaller aches and pains and many people can present a low grade fever without realizing it. Temperature checks are a great way to identify illness early or prevent eager or determined employees from attempting to work while sick. While you can purchase a low budget thermometer and have an employee manually check every person’s temperature, it quickly eats into productivity and man hours. The best solution is an automated temperature scanner which frees up your staff and automates the process. The bigger expense up front is more than worth the long term costs of having an employee manually complete this task.
A health questionnaire is an excellent way to protect your business. When a visitor, contractor or employee arrives, they answer specified health questions before entry is granted. These questions can be unique to your business and are a useful tool in preventing illness. A critical function of a quality health questionnaire is to eliminate paper and become electronic. This will automate the process and save you money as well as exponentially improve record keeping. One of the critical features of a health questionnaire for an organization is the liability protection. If a visitor or employee is dishonest when filling out the questionnaire, the liability is likely transferred from the business to the individual. Simple questions about symptoms or contact with positive cases are sufficient for many businesses but a quality solution will allow you unlimited customization. Additionally, this will automate contract tracing with easy to run reports.
The federal vaccine mandate was not upheld in court, however, many states and local governments have continued to implement vaccine or testing policies. Additionally, many venues require a negative test in lieu of a vaccination or as a procedure. Having the ability to manage vaccination and testing records is critical in many areas and industries. A quality solution will allow users to scan a copy of their vaccination card or negative test. An advanced system will also be able to notify users if they need to submit a test if an organization requires weekly testing or for special circumstances. As with all 3 of these solutions, customizability is a must. As the pandemic continues into another year, we will have new variants, learn more about spread and figure out ways to best live with this virus. State and local guidelines will change and having the flexibility to change your solutions alongside the new best practices is an absolute must.
The Wish List
Temperature scanning, health questionnaires and record management are the 3 main ingredients of a world class health screening solution. Next, there are the things you’ll wish you had if you choose to simply implement the most basic affordable systems. These features integrate with the main solutions to automate processes, speed up the time it takes to check in and even go the extra mile to reduce touch points and create the safest possible environment.
- Touchless Screening — The best screening solutions will include an option for a touch free check in. These are usually done on a mobile device and provide a barcode or QR code which allows the visitor to simply scan and enter. There is no contact between any person or machine allowing for a germ free interaction.
- Pre-Screening — Another quality feature of the best solutions is the option to pre-screen. With a pre-screening option, a visitor, contract or employee can use their device to answer questionnaires ahead of time. This can reduce the amount of time a person is in common areas and decrease the amount of time it takes to check in. A high quality pre-screening solution can also integrate with touchless screening to create an automated and touch free process that is efficient and socially distanced.
- Access Control & Door Integration — For organizations who already have established access control, this feature is a game changer. Several companies offer a health screening solution that can integrate with your existing access control. This means that you can open doors and allow access only to those who have passed a health screening, temperature check, scanned a test or any other procedure of your choosing. This capability should allow for a premium health screening solution that is also an unattended lobby.
Some other things to consider when choosing a health screening solution: Badge integration is a convenient time saver for any organization who uses access badges. Contract tracing and reporting should always be a part of any solution. Adding a barcode scanner will allow for pre-screening and speed up the entry process. A kiosk or tablet will quickly pay for themselves by allowing staff to automate check in without the manual process. Custom branding is an excellent upgrade that allows you to keep the feel and personal touch of your business during this process.
Conclusions & Recommendations
The benefits of a quality health screening solution are creating a healthy work environment for your employees and reducing your organizations liability for a Covid-19 related lawsuit or OSHA violation. As the pandemic continues to evolve, it’s become crucial for organizations to evolve safety procedures as well. There are several companies who have developed solutions to both automate and simplify this process for you. One of these companies pivoted at the beginning of the pandemic and became an early leader in health screening solutions.
Savance Workplace has developed an industry leading health screening solution. Not only was Savance one of the first companies to offer covid-19 health screening but they’ve continually improved their solutions to offer a product that checks every single box in the article above. The Savance solution offers automated temperature scanners, customizable questionnaires, touchless, pre-screening, document management, reporting, access control integration and more. Savance has continued to innovate since the early days of the pandemic and has created a truly world class health screening solution for your organization. If you’d like more information on Savance, you can research their health screening solutions here.
