While the COVID-19 pandemic has affected billions of people worldwide and is showing no sign of slowing down. With no vaccine available to stop this deadly virus, things are getting even worse. While many countries have their vaccines in testing phases, no vaccine is still available for mass distribution, leading to an environment of hopelessness and fear. However, our healthcare industry is working relentlessly to improve the pandemic situation and win the battle against the virus.
In such a situation, public healthcare experts in the US rely on a tried and true method to slow down this pandemic that has proven effective against Conoravirus in other countries. This tool is known as contact tracing. It’s a great tool for bringing epidemics like SARS, Ebola, or Coronavirus into the suppression or containment phase. Large-scale contact-tracing programs have been instrumental in suppressing the novel coronavirus in South Korea and Germany due to its successful and widespread implementation.
However, in the US, where COVID-19 cases hit record highs in mid-July, leading to more than 5.4 million infections and more than 170,000 deaths, this tool is still underused. To deal with a pandemic of this magnitude, the US needs a vast army of highly-trained contact tracers who can reach out to each infected individual and their exposed contacts with the advice and support to break the chain of transmission. Many states are already seeking contact tracing services from reputed healthcare BPOs with contact tracing capabilities. However, there is a need for such contact tracers to bring this pandemic into the suppression phase in the US.
Things to know about Contact tracing Services
What is contact tracing?
Contact tracing is the process of interviewing the COVID-19 infected persons to find out the individuals who came in their contact, and informing these contacts and advising them to stay in isolation and monitoring their health condition. If done right, contact tracing can help get an outbreak of COVID-19 or the new coronavirus under control by breaking the disease’s chain of transmission.
The tracing process is quite simple: When someone tests positive for the new coronavirus or becomes sick with COVID-19, a team of contact tracing agents from a reputed contact tracing company are assigned find all the people the infected person came into contact with, as they, too, might be infected. Then these agents help them quarantine for two weeks—almost everyone who becomes sick will show symptoms within 14 days—so they do not accidentally spread the virus any further. The goal is to stop the chain of transmission.
Who can provide contact tracing Services?
Technically, anyone who has a CDC-approved training for contact tracing can perform a contract tracing interview on behalf of the local or state healthcare departments. However, it is better to hire a reputed contact tracing call center for the successful execution of the contact tracing services. Equipped with the latest call center technology and multichannel, multilingual capabilities, such a call center can easily reach out to the infected persons and their close contacts and provide them with the necessary support and guidance.
What are the steps involved in contact tracing services?
The contact tracing service provided by the contact tracing companies typically involves the following steps:
- Interview of the infected individuals– Contact tracing agents can interview a large number of COVID-19 or coronavirus patients in a short time and obtain the information regarding the people they came in contact during this infection period. A contact tracing call center with multilingual capabilities can also reach out to patients who speak a different language.
- Get in touch with the exposed contacts– Using the information obtained from a patient, a call center with contact tracing expertise can quickly reach out to exposed individuals and inform them about the possibility of infection. They can also provide these individuals with the support and guidance they need. The contact tracers can also educate them about self-isolation and the importance of 14 days’ quarantine.
- Referring any individual with symptoms to the healthcare department – If any of the individuals interviewed has already developed a symptom, the contact tracers can quickly refer them to the healthcare department for testing and access to better care. They will also get information regarding their close contacts during the infected period and inform them about the possibility of infection.
- Monitoring the condition regularly – The contact tracing call centers can also be used to keep a tab on the exposed individuals. The contact tracers can check with these individuals regularly via email, text, or phone to see if anyone has developed the symptoms of COVID-19 and advise them on their next course of action.
- Case management– A contact tracing call center with proprietary case management software like Ameridial can manage the entire case history using the said software application. It will reduce the burden of data collection on public health departments and provide the healthcare authorities with access to accurate data in the shortest possible time.
- Protecting the patients’ identity– A HIPAA-compliant healthcare call center offering contact tracing services can protect the identity of a COVID-19 patient during the process of contact tracing, eliminating the risk of stigmatizing an individual infected with COVID-19.
The Ameridial Advantage
As a contact tracing call center with 30 years of experience in the healthcare domain, Ameridial can prove to be a powerful alley for public health departments in the war against COVID-19. With the CDC-compliant process and tools, latest infrastructure, and highly trained multilingual resources, we can help the healthcare departments win the trust of the exposed individuals and convince them to go into 14-day quarantine, bringing the virus in containment phase. Some key features of our contact tracing services are as follows:
- Experience and expertise– As a HIPAA-compliant call center with over 30 years of experience in the healthcare domain, we have the expertise and experience to deal with patients and exposed contacts. Getting a contact tracing call can often be shocking to individuals, but our expert agents can help them get past the denial phase and go into quarantine.
- Scalability– We have a highly-scalable team of contact tracers who can quickly scale up when contact tracing services increase and quickly scale down when the need subsides.
- Training– Besides the HIPAA-compliance training that is a must for our healthcare agents, our contact tracing agents also get a CDC-approved contact tracing training. It helps them to deal with the exposed individuals better without divulging the details of the person infected.
- Multilingual support– we can provide support in English, Spanish, and French (Canadian). We also can support up to 40 languages, including various prominent Asian and European languages. The capability allows us to reach out to the communities and individuals who speak another language than English.
- Proprietary case management software– We have a CDC-compliant proprietary case management software that makes managing these cases a breeze. It also reduces the burden of case management on healthcare officials.
These features enhance our contact center services offering and make it better suited to help state and local healthcare authorities control the spread of the virus. To know more about our contact tracing service offering, contact us today!