Auscura Develops One-Of-A-Kind Virtual Screening Tool Allowing For A Trusted, Easy & Affordable Solution In Bringing Employees Back to the Workplace

    CHICAGO, IL, July 28, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Auscura, a leader in automating healthcare communication, today announced that in response to Illinois Governor, J. B. Pritzker, allowing workers to return to work with fever, symptom, and exposure screening, their SmartContact solution, utilizing web-based communication automation, is able to gather actionable data daily and prevent the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 and allow for workplaces to open and operate safely within federal guidelines utilizing the CDC's return to work decision tree.

Seismic shifts are continuing to emerge in the aftermath of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic - never more apparent than in the daily workspace. As companies look to adapt to "the new normal", innovative technologies have emerged to help with required onsite or virtual screening mandates for keeping the workforce healthy. The well-being of employees is the driving focus as businesses look to new ways to maintain their safety while facing the challenges of re-opening. SmartContact from Auscura is a 30-second e-survey used as a virtual screening tool for employees returning to the workplace that takes into account both day-of symptoms as well as exposure risk - data that can be quickly retrieved whenever needed. It meets CDC and OSHA requirements as well as HIPAA privacy standards and overcomes the cost and other drawbacks of in-person entrance screeners.

Thermal entrance scanning requires temperature kiosks and a person asking about symptoms. This expensive and slow-paced method is often inaccurate and can create a false sense of security whereas the Auscura technology leverages pattern recognition to immediately identify risk. For instance, if two cafeteria workers develop symptoms, urgent operational changes must be put in place. SmartContact is able to recognize clusters and immediately alert company leaders. The solution also allows healthcare staff to electronically contact patients sent home to assure their well-being and uncover or resolve follow-up or service issues. Additionally, employees are linked to both educational resources and made aware of company policies that address infection control.

"In my 30 years of practicing emergency medicine, I have not seen anything to fear more than COVID," says Scaletta, MD, Founder and CEO of Auscura. "We all need to avoid becoming the vector, the reason our family and friends, especially elders and those with chronic conditions, get infected. It's a very challenging situation as the economy, too, has a direct effect on health outcomes."

Dr. Scaletta, a software programmer before entering medical school, is now a practicing emergency physician who is board-certified in emergency medicine and clinical informatics. He oversees two Chicago-area emergency departments. After eight years of experience managing personal health information, the Built-in automation of the solution streamlines workflows and prevents human error. With SmartContact, employees get an automated text message every morning with a link to a short survey to assess their risk levels.

"Daily symptom surveillance is integral to workplace safety," said Dr. Scaletta. "Checking temperatures at an entrance creates bottlenecks and is a clinically-flawed strategy. Less than a third of the patients I admit to the hospital with COVID-19 pneumonia have a fever at triage. Businesses need to know if there are symptoms before someone leaves home so no infection is passed along during a commute."

Auscura's virtual screening technology is safe, inexpensive, and a more straightforward way to meet CDC guidelines. Auscura is the winner of the 2014 Urgent Matters Emergency Care Innovation of the Year Award Recipient. The SmartContact solution is available nationally to turn qualitative feedback into provider-specific reports that measure compassion, communication, and competence for a business. In the forthcoming Post-Pandemic world, an advantage of data will be crucial to the continuing health and safety of enterprises, their employees, and their consumers.

Auscura was founded in 2012 by a physician informaticist to automate patient-provider communication in ways that are effective, affordable and simple to implement. Its SmartContact™ platform facilitates healthcare messaging for a diverse set of use cases in ways that are effective, affordable, and easy to implement. The name, Auscura, conjoins the Latin roots aus (to listen) and cura (to help) and conveys our mission of eliciting patient feedback and using it to improve outcomes and experience. www.auscura.com

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