HONOLULU (PRWEB)
July 20, 2020

iHealthHome and MediKeeper, two tech companies with Hawaii roots, announce a collaboration with the University of Hawaii’s Pacific Urban Resilience Lab (PURL) and the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (ndptc.hawaii.edu) for the use of their Covid Navigator mobile app to automate COVID-19 screening of employee caregivers serving seniors. Keeping seniors safe is a paramount priority for everyone working hard to re-open the economy while keeping the virus away from vulnerable people like seniors. Covid Navigator was designed to help.

iHealthHome, Inc. based in Seattle and MediKeeper, Inc. based in San Diego have co-developed Covid Navigator to help all employers navigate the complexities of keeping their staff and their customers safe. The administrative burden of screening staff and customers weighs heavily on all employers, especially in these harsh economic times. But screenings are key to re-opening safely. “Our goal in creating the app was to make it as easy as possible for organizations to incorporate effective Covid-19 screening into their daily processes and minimize the need to buy expensive equipment or hire dedicated people to manage the paperwork,” says Dew-Anne Langcaon, CEO for iHealthHome. “The mobile app takes an employee less than 1 minute to complete on their own mobile phone and the answers to questions about symptoms, temperature readings and other tasks needed by the employer are automatically logged, tracked and reported for the employer’s records,” says David Ashworth CEO of MediKeeper, Inc. Because employees complete the screening and get their Cleared for Work Badge from home, before reporting to the worksite, congestion at front entry doorways and delays to the start of work can be avoided. Temperatures and questionnaires can be re-taken randomly throughout the day as many times as needed with all results automatically logged and eliminating the clipboards, paper files and staffing to collect and manage it all.

Screening can be especially challenging for senior care organizations. As such, the University of Hawaii has collaborated with three organizations: Kahala Nui, a senior living community, Caring Manoa, an adult residential care home, and Ho’okele Home Care, a home care agency. Each has implemented Covid Navigator and UH will evaluate the integration of the automated with the manual screening processes already in place. Dr. Karl Kim, Executive Director of PURL and NDPTC at the University of Hawaii says, “Covid-19 will be with us for a long time and inevitably, there will other health related disruptions in the future. Screening and testing are key factors for control over the spread of the disease in the short term, but in the long run, analysis of data will help us better understand how to improve systems as a society to respond more rapidly to protect vulnerable populations. We can learn from Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, which implemented automated systems to respond to Covid-19. We are excited to work with these progressive organizations to understand the role of automation and data analysis in protecting our seniors.”

Tanya Fernandes, CEO for Ho’okele Home Care says, “One of our challenges as a home care agency is that we don’t have a front door to stop and screen employees since they report to work at our client’s homes. Our screening must be done in the field and our management team notified right away to take action. The mobility of the app and the Cleared for Work badge that results every day helps to give peace of mind to our senior clients and their families before our caregivers perform services in their home.” At Kahala Nui, Executive Director Wendy Wong says, “We have an extensive questionnaire and temperature checks at our entrance for every person who enters our facility. It is very effective, but it requires dedicated staff to accomplish and can cause congestion at the start of shift for our employees. We believe on-going screening will be part of our new normal and are seeking the most effective way to make it a permanent part of what we do.” Smaller care homes are equally as challenged as large facilities and Todd Pang, CEO of Caring Manoa says, “Automation is an even greater imperative for smaller care homes who are managing tight budgets but have exactly the same demands for keeping our residents and staff safe as larger facilities. So, we have to make it as efficient and affordable as possible to perform.”

Covid Navigator is seeking additional senior care organizations in Hawaii interested in joining the study and the mobile app is currently available for any interested employer or provider in the US. For more information, contact Dew-Anne Langcaon, CEO of iHealthHome at dewanne@ihealthhome.com or David Ashworth, CEO of MediKeeper at dashworth@medikeeper.com.

About iHealthHome:

iHealthHome is a leading provider of cloud-based care management and home care software. iHealthHome’s mission is to is to make it easy for providers to implement technology and automate workflows so seniors and medically fragile individuals can stay healthy at home affordably. iHealthHome is highly adaptable to its customers workflows and is used by small private agencies and large national non-profit organizations serving over 35,000 individuals. iHealthHome creates a virtual village to wrap around an individual with complex needs and coordinate their care. Learn more at http://www.ihealthhome.com.

About MediKeeper:

MediKeeper, Inc. is the leader in customizable Wellness Platforms for health Plans, Brokers, TPA’s, Wellness companies and Employers. Highly configurable and white-labeled, the MediKeeper Platform can be implemented very quickly (days rather than months) and can be integrated with other third-party wellness tools. With over 9 million users across over 70,000 organizations, the MediKeeper Wellness Platform can support any organization from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. Learn more at Medikeeper.com

About Pacific Urban Resilience Lab, University of Hawaii.

The Pacific Urban Resilience Lab (PURL) is housed at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, with the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (ndptc.hawaii.edu) at the University of Hawaii. PURL develops and test applications and technologies to support community resilience.

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