The general means of determining the success of any business is by their financials. As a business owner or executive, part of your responsibility is protecting those profits. To do that, you must keep the costs of your production, operations, sales, and management teams as low as possible.
But the costs of maintaining employees goes far beyond wages, benefits, payroll taxes, and insurance. It also involves supporting those employees so that they can remain health and active to perform their duties as needed.
In the midst of the current health crisis, it is even more important to do what you can to protect your employees. The time lost can be detrimental, and as the pandemic wears on you can bet that new guidance and regulations will be coming down from OSHA as to protective measures that will be legally required by employers.
In addition to the costs of lost time from sick workers, failing to take reasonable measures in the battle against COVID-19 could potentially create a deficit for legal costs. Some states or locales have passed mandates requiring certain types of businesses to have temperature scanners and other screening measures in place.
Also, if OSHA decides to start enforcing specific regulations regarding protections like temperature scanner kiosks, you could also be facing some hefty fines if you fail to implement the necessary programs.
Lawsuits or OSHA violations can add up, and depending on the extent and outcome, such complications can put a business under even in the best of economies. Today? Your outlook might not be too good.
But how do you keep your employees safe in a pandemic? There are several things you should do, including installing a temperature scanner kiosk at each employee entrance. Here’s what you need to know to protect your employees and business.
Employee Covid Screening Activities Recommended by the CDC
In-person health checks of all employees coming into the building has been heralded as one of the most effective measures a business can take to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the workplace. Although not a complete stop-gap in mitigating infection risk, employee covid screenings are an important part of an overall Covid prevention program.
The CDC has provided guidelines for businesses of all types regarding such employee screenings, and measures that should be taken in the event a risk of infection is present. These guidelines and recommendations are outlined below.
Important Note: Keep in mind that your specific state, county, borough, or city may have location-specific mandates regarding employee screening in place. For example, New Jersey recently passed a mandate that all employees must be screened for temperature and symptoms of covid prior to entering the workplace. Check with your local public health department to verify.
Employee self-screening questions prior to coming to work
All employees should be educated on the covid prevention program you have put in place for your facility. While many people are working virtually and facilities are working hard to social distance, it is a good idea to make this a virtual training module rather than an in-person meeting or assembly. Each employee should be required to show their understanding of these rules to ensure that there are no violations of the new policy, which is also easy to manage with virtual training.
From there, employees must hold the responsibility for preventing the spread if they may have been infected or exposed to someone with Covid-19. As part of that, you should make sure that employees are answering the following self-screening questions prior to arriving on-site, and that they stay home if any risk is present.
- Have you been exposed to someone that is awaiting test results or has tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 14 days?
- Has a household member been placed on quarantine, either for positive results or due to risk of infection?
- Have you undergone Covid treatment within the last 10 days?
Of course, employees should use their own judgement, and it may not be necessary to self-quarantine more than a few days to ensure there is no risk before they return to work. However, if any of the above are true and the employee has developed new cold- or flu-like symptoms, they should stay home until the symptoms resolve or they have received a negative covid test. This should be made clear to employees from the first day of your covid prevention plan implementation.
A good method for employee self-screening is an automated phone system that records the user’s responses. This would allow you to track each employee by their assigned number, their responses to the self-screening questions, and allow for a voice mailbox or other call-out method in the event the answers are in the affirmative. Each business should evaluate all options for effectiveness based on the size of operations and on-site staff.
On-site COVID symptom screening questions for employees
Once employees arrive on site, they should be asked some additional screening questions. Again, if you prefer to handle this part of the screening virtually as above, you could do so through a phone automated system as mentioned above, or through a company portal or website.
All employees coming on site should be asked if they have new or worsening symptoms of:
- Chills, with or without fever
- Cough
- Shortness of breath
- Difficulty breathing
- Fatigue, extreme tiredness, or easily feeling worn out
- Unexplained muscle or body aches
- Headache
- Loss of taste or smell
- Sore throat
- Chest or nasal congestion, and/or runny nose
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhea
While it is true that all of these symptoms can also be present in common infections like cold and flu, the truth is that any illness in the workplace is a bad thing. A simple summer cold can put an entire team out of the office for days. A flu bug can travel through a workplace like wildfire and cause weeks of decreased staff. These have always been true.
Unfortunately, it has taken a global pandemic for Americans to realize that being forced to work while sick is harmful to our society and economy, and each individual business’ bottom line. While it is true that symptoms are similar to other illnesses, no illness should be tolerated within your facility.
Recommended temperature scanning guidelines
The CDC has also issued guidance about temperature scanner kiosks for employees, including recommendations for no-contact methods and single person screening, and at what temperature someone should be sent to a medical professional for further evaluation.
The FDA has also issued guidance about what type of no-contact temperature scanner kiosk is best for scanning skin surface temperature for the purpose of screening employees. While the FDA is not requiring formal approval for marketing of such products, it is important to note that our product uses the same technology as our FDA approved competitors, but at a much smaller price tag.
Below you will find the specific guidance the CDC has provided for all employers. Again, it is very important to follow some of these measures to remain compliant with other government regulations, such as HIPAA.
Implementation of a Temperature Screening Kiosk or Station
Although the CDC recognizes that some businesses may opt for use more accurate internal body temperature thermometers, the fact that these options require hands-on close contact with all entering the building makes them unfavorable. Any temperature screening station should:
- Be equipped with sanitization tools and solutions to frequently disinfect the equipment being used, even if it is a no-contact temperature scanner kiosk.
- Hand sanitizer, gloves and masks for those in close contact with employees if using internal thermometers (which is an unnecessary added expense).
- A means of exit for those with increased body temperature that decreases risk of spread to those entering the building.
- Allow for single subject screening in a way that doesn’t violate HIPAA or other privacy concerns by keeping screening results private.
If you opt for one of our Zortemp 1000 Automatic temperature scanner kiosks, you will meet all of these requirements with little trouble. The contact-free method of temperature scanning doesn’t require the added expense of additional PPE like masks and gloves, as well as the cost of cleaning supplies as the no-contact temperature scanner kiosk doesn’t require as frequent disinfection, especially if everyone is required to be masked upon entry. We’ll get more into the features and benefits of Zortemp 1000 and how it meets those requirements below.
Recommended actions at elevated body temperature
The CDC recommends that anyone with an elevated body temperature of 100.4 be sent to a medical professional for additional screening. However, this is based on internal body temperature, and no-contact temperature scanners like the Zortemp 1000 measure surface body temperature. We address this issue with an infrared thermographic temperature scanner that is accurate to within 0.5 degrees of internal temperature, whereas the FDA requirement is a max of 0.9 degrees variance. When in doubt, your local public health department should be able to give you additional guidelines that make sense for your facility.
Zortemp 1000 Helps you meet these recommendations
As promised, we will now get into the meat of what you really want to know — “How Does the Zortemp 1000 body temperature scanner kiosk Meet CDC temperature screening guidelines?” Below you will find each of the bulleted recommendations as to implementing a temperature screening station, and how Zortemp’s features meet each requirement.
No-contact temperature scanner kiosk is the safest method for all
Not only do no-contact temperature screening methods protect your entryway screeners, they also protect the employees coming into your building. While it is still necessary to disinfect the equipment from time to time, especially if it was inadvertently touched, you will not have to clean it as often as long as all subjects are wearing a mask at the time that they approach the kiosk.
In addition, the Zortemp 1000 can measure the surface temperature of the skin for an extended distance due to the infrared thermographic technology. Because there is no camera aided face detection, the radius of effectiveness is expanded. You can ensure that the distance remains effective for each subject by marking the floor so that people know where to stand as they come in.
Automatic hand sanitizer station installed on the kiosk
The Zortemp 1000 features an automatic hand sanitizer station. Signage near the screening station should require entrants to use hand sanitizer prior to moving on to enter the primary facility areas. Even if you have a large number of employees, no kiosk should have to be refilled in one day. It is important to remember to take special care when disinfecting the hand sanitizer portion of the kiosk, because people often touch them inadvertently.
Single subject screening for accuracy
The Zortemp 1000 comes with complete instructions for implementation that meet the standards set by the CDC, including the admonition to stick to single subject screening. This is important because single subject screening at an appropriate distance with an appropriate blackbody is the most accurate way to read surface skin temperature with these scanners.
Safety and privacy concerns addressed by Zortemp 1000 Temperature Scanner Kiosk
The CDC is particularly warning against public safety and privacy concerns when it comes to employee covid screenings. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires that employee health information be kept private. That requires some additional considerations on the part of the organization to protect employee privacy.
The Zortemp 1000 effectively addresses these privacy concerns through camera-free infrared thermographic technology and anonymous pass/fail temperature reporting software. Unlike other infrared no-contact temperature scanner kiosks, the Zortemp 1000 does not contain a camera for face detection. Our infrared technology is accurate without face detection, and removing the element of a camera increases security and privacy.
Likewise, the software package we offer for our temperature scanner kiosk provides you with only pass/fail events, not identifying employee information. However, the software is still highly effective in identifying trends within teams and departments based on point and time of entry, and if there is a fail event you can have procedures in place to discreetly collect the individual’s personal information.
Important CDC warnings of potential infection risk in spite of reasonable COVID screening measures
While the CDC is still recommending broad employee screening to prevent the spread of covid-19 in the workplace, they are also urging employers to understand that these screenings alone are not enough to mitigate risk in your facility. Here’s what you need to know.
Symptom screening is helpful, but does not guarantee lack of infection
Screenings can help reduce the number of infected employees entering the building, but without additional measures in place, such as keeping part of your staff virtual and encouraging distancing, your company could still be a hotbed for Covid infections.
While symptom screening can be effective in preventing those with an obvious illness from entering your facility, it doesn’t keep asymptomatic people from entering. It can take several days, sometimes more than a week, after being exposed to the virus before you could show symptoms.
Some people have tested positive with no symptoms at all. Just like any illness, everyone presents with it differently. And, those with chronic health conditions make it even more difficult to know whether or not there is a risk.
Use of a temperature scanner kiosk does not guarantee 100% protection
Just like screening questions, a temperature scanner kiosk doesn’t guarantee that you will protect your organization from covid infections. There are many, many people who have had coronavirus and never ran a fever at all. Just like flu, fever if the most common and easiest to measure symptom. But a lack of fever isn’t proof that the employee is healthy.
Employee COVID screenings alone are not enough
You must also follow up symptom and temperature screenings with providing employees with personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer. You should also keep as much of your staff virtual as possible, which makes it easier to social distance with the staff still present on-site.
You should also have a rigorous cleaning and disinfecting program in place. This may require hiring an outside agency or contractor to ensure that there is time for all workstations to be disinfected as frequently as possible, preferably nightly. Another option may be to provide each employee with their own disinfecting tools and cleaners so that they may disinfect their own workstation. This allows your cleaning staff to focus on common areas.
Protect your company with employee screening and temperature scanner kiosks
The bottom line is that when it comes to protecting your business, you have to first protect your employees. Without them, you have no business. Unless you are prepared to handle everything yourself, you need to take care of your employees so that they can take care of you.
Those questioning how long the pandemic might last may be wondering if it is worth the investment. But the truth is that we are at least a few years away from getting this crisis truly under control. We are probably looking at wearing masks and social distancing for quite a while. It is time to accept our new normal. As such, this investment is minor when it comes to protecting your business from lost employee time.
Ready to make your purchase? The Zortemp 1000 is the most effective and affordable temperature scanner kiosk on the market. Contact us today to learn more.