hc1’s Brad Bostic’s keys to an effective return-to-work and contact tracing plan

As businesses continue to reopen and people start returning to work in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, one tool that can help limit spread is contact tracing. While contact tracing may be done manually with a pen and paper for small businesses with a handful of employees, it becomes much more of an arduous task for those with hundreds of workers who hail from different communities and are spread across many different floors and departments.

hc1, the leader in critical insight, analytics, and solutions for precision health that power high-value health care, has created hc1 Workforce Advisor™, an innovative return-to-work solution that brings together real-time lab results with local risk and symptoms.  Workforce Advisor was recently recognized by PC Magazine as one of six contact tracing apps that will allow for the safe re-opening of a business.

Brad Bostic, hc1’s Chairman and CEO, told PC Magazine that any effective return-to-work and contact tracing plan needed four key elements:

• Easy accessibility — The solution should be compatible with the tools employees are already using to help cut down on time spent training and implementing.
• Data aggregation — In order to make it easy for a contact tracing app to track and collect information, there needs to be an effective combination of other apps, wearables, Wi-Fi networking and self-reporting.
• Privacy and security — Employees need to be assured their information is being collected strictly for health and safety reasons and will never be shared with outside agencies.
• Breaking the participation barrier — For contact tracing to succeed, it requires the right amount of buy-in and participation from employees.

While contact tracing is a very effective tool, Bostic stressed to PC Magazine that other measures and protocols need to remain in place in order for businesses and offices to re-open in a safe and responsible manner.

“When it comes to keeping employees safe when they return to the workplace, the most effective measures are routine lab testing, physical infrastructure reconfiguration, workplace social distancing, and remaining vigilant of potential exposure to COVID-19,” Bostic said.