Understanding the Purpose of the Daily Health Screening
To comply with New York State guidelines, all faculty, staff, and students must complete an electronic health screening every day. The screening will ask questions regarding exposure to COVID-19-positive individuals and whether any COVID-19 symptoms are present. Based on the response to these questions, individuals will receive a prompt that indicates they are cleared to access campus or are not cleared to access campus and should consult with a medical professional. The college is not collecting or storing specific medical information as part of the screen.
Campus community members will receive an email reminder every morning, 7 days a week, prompting them to complete the electronic screening. Individuals who will not be accessing campus at all in the fall are able to opt-out of receiving the daily screening emails.
Identifying a Screening Contact
Each school, department, or business unit should determine the “screening contact” (previously referred to as the “supervisor” in earlier versions of the form) for a given area. The screening contact will be the person receiving the screening report summary and is responsible for verifying that employees accessing campus are in fact completing the screening as required. The screening contact may be a Dean, department chair, supervisor, or other personnel. Employees should be made aware of the appropriate screening contact for their position by their school, department, or business unit so they can enter the correct name on the form. Once entered, it will auto-populate for future screenings.
Reviewing the Screening Report Summary
The person designated as the screening contact will receive a screening report summary each morning reflecting the status of any employee that has opted into the daily health screening because they are accessing campus. Please note that the summary report reflects the previous day’s activity – it is not real time.
Regular spot-checking should be conducted by the screening contact to make a reasonable determination whether individuals who were on campus completed the daily health screening. This will be easier for employees with regular and consistent work schedules, and more challenging for those who do not. It will be important for departments or business units to implement a strategy to understand who is accessing campus and on what days. This is a change in practice for some of our employees, particularly faculty, but is necessary for compliance with New York State guidelines related to the daily health screening. You do not need to keep a record of every place on campus a person has accessed; but you will need to have a general sense of people’s schedules and the days of the week they are accessing campus.
Handling Noncompliance
If the screening contact identifies patterns of noncompliance from individuals that are repeatedly accessing campus without completing the daily screening, action should be taken by the supervisor. The supervisor may, or may not, be the screening contact. An appropriate first step is a verbal reminder that completing the daily health screening is required by New York State and the Ithaca College Community Agreement. If noncompliance continues, the appropriate Dean should be notified regarding faculty members and Human Resources should be notified regarding staff.
Handling Medical Questions
Screening contacts are NOT responsible for dispensing medical advice or making decisions whether someone should access campus. Currently, employees should contact their primary care provider or Human Resources (607-274-8000 or humanresources@ithaca.edu) if they are unsure what to do. We are working on adding a telemedicine option which will connect employees directly to a medical provider to assist with decision making. Students should contact Hammond Health Center at 607-274-3177.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20200828142950256