August 10, 2020

 

WILMINGTON, NC—CastleBranch, an infectious disease screening and compliance management company, has released a full, end–to–end solution to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 by identifying, isolating and interrupting the spread of the disease. Available as a complete managed service, the solution provides temperature screening and symptom monitoring; quarantine and isolation protocol management; diagnostic testing facilitation and results monitoring; and contact tracing. The solution is being launched ahead of the upcoming flu season to help higher education institutions, employers, and healthcare facilities protect their people from the threat of COVID-19.

 

Clinically speaking, COVID-19 and the flu are indistinguishable from one another in the diseases’ early stages. Lacking the ability to differentiate one from the other, experts are recommending organizations treat all flu cases as potential COVID-19 cases—until proven otherwise—to reduce the threat of COVID-19 spreading. Currently, the CDC is predicting upward of 40 million cases of the flu this year, in addition to the 5 million cases of COVID-19 already present in the United States.

 

“There is a huge, dark cloud gathering and we need to get ready for the storm,” said Dr. Douglas Grant, Infectious Disease Council (IDC) member and Registrar and CEO of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia. “Even with the mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers, we saw upwards of 56 million cases, 740,000 hospitalizations and 62,000 deaths from influenza this year. The collision of seasonal flu with another wave of COVID-19 this fall will remind us of this devastating impact. It will multiply the stresses on our system.”

 

As the stresses on our system continue to grow, it will be important for organizations to have a process in place to help mitigate the risk of infectious disease, while also helping organizations deal with the logistical, legal and liability challenges that come when collecting huge amounts of personal data needed to screen for COVID-19, as well as managing hundreds to thousands of individuals across a single organization.

 

“The regulatory landscape is extensive and in a constant state of evolution, ranging from the General Data Protection Regulation from the European Union to a patchwork of domestic state laws, and numerous federal privacy bills under consideration,” said David Parker, IDC member and former interim Vice Chancellor and General Counsel for UNC-Chapel Hill. “These types of laws require a screening solution to be designed with privacy in mind, followed by the development of a robust framework to timely and appropriately respond to consumer data requests.”

 

Violating state and federal privacy laws, as organizations collect personally identifiable information and medical records needed to screen for COVID-19, can result in fines anywhere from $50,000 per incident to millions of dollars. Furthermore, institutions and employers across the country are now facing the threat of litigation for gross negligence or wrongful death for failing to adequately protect their people, making the construction of clear, detailed audit trails absolutely essential for all organizations.

 

CastleBranch’s COVID-19 Compliance solution draws inspiration from groups like the IDC, as well as the CDC and WHO, and is designed to handle the logistical, legal and liability challenges that come when trying to protect people and institutions from COVID-19.

 

Contained within four modules, the solution first empowers organizations to monitor temperatures, symptoms and exposure to the disease, allowing them to identify potential COVID-19 or flu cases. Once identified, individuals can be entered into the complex quarantine and/or isolation process, which follows the guidelines established by the CDC and IDC. While in quarantine or isolation, individuals can use the tool to facilitate a diagnostic test and legally share results with approved parties. Finally, CastleBranch is offering a contact tracing solution, allowing organizations to identify and contact other individuals in their organization who may have come into contact with the infected party.

 

The application, one of the first of its kind, is built by a company with a 20+ year track record of complying with strict state and federal privacy regulations; creates a detailed audit trail along every step of the process; and is available as a completely managed service to help organization handle the logistics of such a complex challenge.

 

“COVID-19 represents one of the greatest existential threats to our health, safety and wellbeing any of us have seen in our lifetime,” said Brett Martin, Founder and CEO of CastleBranch. “And the predicted second wave of COVID-19, coupled with our annual flu season, will create a much larger storm, one that has the potential to devastate our healthcare system, education system and economy on a massive scale. We developed CB COVID-19 Compliance to help organizations fight back—to protect people from the storm by folding expert guidance into our actionable solution.”