Proprietary Virtual Screening Tool From Auscura Offers An Affordable & Easy Solution To Bring Students Back On Campus

    CHICAGO, IL, August 21, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Auscura, a leader in automating healthcare communication, today announced that in response to the on-going endeavor to find ways that will allow students back on campus for safe face-to-face learning, their SmartContact solution, utilizing web-based communication automation, can screen student symptoms and exposure risk daily. The platform delivers an immediate solution to getting both students and faculty back to school and mitigating both legal and safety-related risks.

As institutions of higher learning face the challenges of re-opening amidst the Coronavirus Pandemic, many are taking the time to determine how swiftly and completely they can resume full-on campus operations. An enormous amount of uncertainty surrounds COVID-related standards of care and many schools have taken to having their students and faculty sign waivers in a preemptive defense against any costs associated with defending against potential lawsuits. Even if a school has done everything possible to keep students and staff safe, anyone who could point to catching COVID-19 on campus could cause the university or college a certain amount of liability. One solution is Auscura's proprietary SmartContact, a 30-second e-survey used as a virtual screening tool for students and faculty returning to campus that considers both day-of symptoms as well as an exposure risk. This cumulative data can be quickly retrieved whenever it is needed and meets CDC requirements as well as HIPAA privacy standards.

In-person entrance screeners and temperature kiosks require an actual person asking about symptoms. This is an expensive and slow-paced method that is also often inaccurate. These checks also create a false sense of security as many COVID-19 cases present without a fever. SmartContact uses data and pattern recognition to identify risk quickly. For instance, if two students in a certain section of a dorm develop symptoms, urgent operational changes and quarantines are put into place. Auscura's technology recognizes clusters and immediately alerts campus leaders. The solution also allows healthcare staff to electronically contact students or faculty to assure that their health is being looked after and determine any follow-up or medical services. Additionally, employees and students are linked to educational health-resources and made aware of school policies that address infection control.

"As an emergency physician, I regularly see the effects of COVID," says Tom Scaletta, MD, Founder, and CEO of Auscura. "The risk in young adults - and children for that matter - is that they are often asymptomatic. The question boils down to whether they will be able to comply with the CDC prevention guidelines and how fast an outbreak can be identified. Our technology also screens their behavior and risk of exposure, which is quite high on many campuses."

Dr. Scaletta served as a software programmer before deciding to go to medical school. Currently, a practicing emergency physician who is board-certified in emergency medicine and clinical informatics, he oversees two Chicago-area emergency departments. Using his eight years of experience managing personal health information, the Built-in automation of his SmartContact solution streamlines workflows and prevents human error. With SmartContact, students receive an automated text message every morning with a link to a short survey to assess their risk levels.

"There are plenty of cases where a student infects a parent or grandparent with devastating consequences. Just imagine the lifelong burden of being the one that brought the disease home. They also come into face to face contact with vulnerable instructors and faculty."

Auscura's virtual screening technology is safe, inexpensive, and a more straightforward way to meet CDC guidelines. It can also be deployed in schools catering to K-12 where the risk of taking the disease home is even greater. The SmartContact solution is available nationally to turn qualitative feedback into provider-specific reports that measure compassion, communication, and competence for institutions of learning everywhere. Auscura is also the winner of the 2014 Urgent Matters Emergency Care Innovation of the Year Award Recipient.

About Auscura
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

# # #