Heritage Christian Services Launches COVID-19 Screening and Tracking Hotline to Help Stem the Spread of the Coronavirus

ROCHESTER, N.Y., April 15, 2020 (Newswire.com) - ​Heritage Christian Services has launched a COVID-19 hotline for employees and those who use its services to report symptoms and get help. An automated platform allows hotline staff to quickly log responses to a battery of questions, based on CDC guidelines. It enables reporting and contact tracing to identify and notify others who may have come into contact with the individual.

The automated system replaces a cumbersome manual, paper-based process and allows Heritage Christian Services to support more people more quickly. It frees up valuable resources so that staff can attend to the important work of meeting the needs of those they serve. It was developed through a partnership with Rochester-based LincWare, a developer of automated documentation solutions.

"We're so grateful to have had this opportunity to work with LincWare on this crucial project," said Marisa Geitner, president and CEO of Heritage Christian Services. "The system streamlines our processes and enables us to give back to our community by offering up key data that ultimately can help stop the spread of the coronavirus."

Heritage Christian Services, as one of the region's larger employers with just over 3,000 employees, provides a broad and deep portfolio of services to people throughout western New York. As COVID-19 began to spread, it quickly became clear that a better method was needed to efficiently assess the health of its own employees as well as the individuals it serves. "We realized quickly the impact we could have on slowing the spread if we could be an efficient, effective resource not only to those who choose our services but to our employees and their families as well," said Geitner. Given the size of that population, organizing and tracking something as fast-moving as COVID-19 was quite a task. Heritage Christian Services had worked with LincWare on a previous project and reached out to them for help. Within a few days, their collaborative effort produced a system that provided an automated form of detailed questions for hotline personnel to gather critical information from callers.

The platform organizes questions in a way that pinpoints where the individual works or which services they receive. The hotline staff moves through a detailed list of questions and prompts, designed to quickly conduct a health assessment, based on CDC guidelines. The data collected in the system enables Heritage Christian to reach beyond the person with COVID-19 symptoms to those people they have had contact with, both within and outside the Heritage Christian base. This added reporting capability has enabled Heritage Christian to easily share data with the local health departments across their service region and state oversight agencies seeking accurate information.

"COVID-19 requires an all-hands-on-deck effort to stem its spread, and we are honored to have had a role in Heritage Christian Services' program to reach out to the community," said Darren Mathis, CEO of LincWare. "These are unprecedented times, and it is critical for technology providers to partner with healthcare providers to help stem the spread of the coronavirus and keep everyone in our communities safer."

About Heritage Christian Services:
Heritage Christian Services partners with thousands of people throughout Rochester and to ensure that everyone feels valued and respected. Most of the agency's 3,000 employees work to support people so they can find the best place to live, work and build strong community connections through residential, day, respite, self-direction and employment supports. For more information, visit www.HeritageChristianServices.org.

About LincWare:
LincWare is the developer of a product suite of smart automation solutions, including Admit+, a Resident/Patient admissions paperwork automation tool; EOS, an employee onboarding solution; and LincDoc, an eForms application that simplifies paper-based processes where compliance and efficiency are critical. Their focus is to make processes more efficient to free up valuable employee time to focus on more important work. Founded in 2007 by Darren Mathis, chief executive officer, and Eric Lenio, chief technology officer, LincWare is a privately owned company with offices in East Rochester, New York. For more information, visit www.lincware.com or [email protected].​

Contact information: Darren Mathis - [email protected]

Source: Heritage Christian Services