Recent reports of coronavirus cases are climbing in a number of states, suggesting that the U.S. is not out of the woods yet in dealing with the pandemic. Many businesses, schools, and other organizations, as they continue reopening activities, are urging the continued use of masks and social distancing to slow the spread of the virus.
Returning to everyday life and business, especially with the recent spike in the number of cases, is a reminder that reopening for business does not mean “business as usual”.
Many new procedures and preparations are essential for ensuring the safety of employees, partners, suppliers, and customers – including case management, contact tracing, and tracking and monitoring cases both internally and in surrounding communities.
Complicating matters, along with all the added tasks that come with the pandemic, it is important to stay prepared for and aware of the many other emergencies, critical incidents, and potential natural and human-caused disasters that can occur in “ordinary” times.
For example, the state of Arizona has seen a dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases while also battling wildfires that have burned over 150,000 acres, necessitated evacuations, and closed a number of roads. Potentially impacting other states, forecasters are predicting a busier than normal hurricane season with more named storms in the eastern Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico.
Performing all the necessary tasks to prepare and respond to critical incidents while navigating COVID-19-related duties is an incredibly complex endeavor. Businesses and organizations need mission-specific tools and dynamic workflows to help keep employees safe, manage return-to-work requirements, mitigate risks, and prepare for future critical incidents.
Emergency management platforms like Juvare’s WebEOC Workplace and WebEOC Campus combine critical incident management best practices with pandemic-specific workflows, as well as a variety of other functionalities to provide the situational awareness and “common operating picture” – which provide leadership, emergency response teams, and other stakeholders the ability to see incidents as they are happening, to help make better and faster decisions and improve emergency response.
WebEOC Workplace and WebEOC Campus also offer greater monitoring and tracking capabilities, and enable better communication of up-to-date information for enhanced day-to-day situational awareness to protect health and safety.
WebEOC Workplace and WebEOC Campus also support the highest control of privacy standards and are scalable and customizable to fit the unique needs of businesses, educational institutions, and other organizations.
Other features to consider include:
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- Centralized executive dashboards for complete situational awareness
- Pre-configured workflows for fast time to value
- Editable checklist templates based on FEMA, CDC, and OSHA guidelines
- Mobile-ready employee check-in workflows
- Contact tracing and case management with automated prompts
- Facility status monitoring
- Community impact tracking
- Request/task Management
- Employee status log
- Secure file library
- Twitter feed monitoring
- ArcGIS COVID-19 map dashboards
- Available integration with existing technologies
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Navigating the “Normals”
For a while it appeared that the nation was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in regard to COVID-19. Recent events have shown that the only thing that is predictable is the unpredictable. Situations change without notice, and the only way to stay ahead of the unexpected is to be prepared. That philosophy – being prepared for the unexpected – has been with us for a long time. It’s more or less “the old normal”. The “new normal” that has been bandied about so frequently can basically be summed up as an expectation that the COVID-19 threat will be with us for a while yet.
Navigating both “normals” requires organizations to reorganize, renew, and reinvigorate processes, tasks, and activities effectively prepare and respond to any crisis or disaster.
A robust monitoring platform, such as WebEOC Workplace or WebEOC Campus, is crucial to record and track massive amounts of data and continue ongoing tracking and monitoring for an indeterminate period of time.
Juvare solutions provide complete situational awareness during unexpected incidents, disasters, and daily operations, connecting organizations’ data sources to improve communications, enhance information management, and empower preparedness and response professionals to protect people, property, and brands.
Contact us to learn more about Juvare’s WebEOC Workplace and WebEOC Campus platforms that offer the tools you need to reduce the complexity and risk associated with returning to day-to-day operations while keeping employees safe and ensuring preparedness for any future critical incident or impact to operations.