We have been helping organizations manage crises and emergencies for almost a decade. We have been preparing for a crisis like this one. As we continue to respond to COVID-19, the team at Veoci would like to let you know what we as a company have been doing in response to its spread, and offer our services and expertise to anyone who is putting together processes and solutions to implement and operationalize your organization’s response.
Veoci COVID-19 Webinars
At Veoci, we’re not only solutions providers, we’re response and continuity practitioners too.
We understand the difference accurate information makes during plan activations and responses. Because we know how important this is, we’ve created materials and sources practitioners from all corners and industries can use in their COVID-19 responses.
Past Webinars
Webinar – Part 1: Coronavirus – Updates in an Evolving Story
Presented by Dr. Marie Louise Landry, Director of Clinical Virology Laboratory at the Yale University School of Medicine, this webinar was an extremely insightful and informative look at the virology and history of COVID-19 in the context of past virus outbreaks and their impact.
You can read a summary of the webinar here on the Veoci blog.
Webinar – Part 2: Coronavirus – Immune Response to Viruses
Dr. Paula Kavathas, Professor Laboratory Medicine and Immunobiology at the Yale University School of Medicine, takes us on a deep dive into our immune system and how it responds to viral attacks, with particular focus on how COVID-19 and similar infections are handled by the human body.
Watch the webinar recording, or read the summary.
Webinar – Part 3: Practitioner Panel: Continuity in the Face of Coronavirus
A team of Veoci practitioners joined a panel discussion on how organizations can quickly implement digital solutions to ensure the safety of their communities and employees, specific measures that can be deployed for COVID-19, and general expertise on ensuring continuity and resilience.
Watch the webinar recording, or read the summary.
The Virtual EOC: Long Term Pandemic Management
Veoci’s latest webinar focuses on Virtual Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) and how they can be used for long term crisis management. A team of Veoci practitioners spoke about their experiences in the field of emergency management and working with physical and virtual EOCs.
Watch the webinar recording, or read the summary.
HIPAA and COVID-19: What Organizations and Businesses Need to Know
The Veoci team reviews the current status of HIPAA and COVID-19 in light of non-enforcement notices and guidance, and shares methods of secure PHI documentation and sharing for HIPAA compliance today and going forward.
Watch the webinar recording here, or read the summary.
Digitally Managing the Return to Campus
With talk of businesses and institutions reopening in the coming months in the midst of COVID-19, higher ed emergency managers and administrators need to take into account all of the rules and policies around reopening being issued by authorities. Watch this webinar featuring emergency management professionals from Washington University in St. Louis, Louisiana State University, University of South Florida and Southern Methodist University as they discuss and share some of their COVID-19 response tools as well as their return to campus plans and processes.
Watch the webinar recording here.
Accelerating COVID-19 Contact Tracing Efforts
In this webinar, Brian Weeks, epidemiologist for the city of New Haven, discusses the City of New Haven’s contact tracing efforts for COVID-19.
Watch the webinar recording here.
Reopening Part 1: Return to the Office
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, many organizations continue to ask themselves and local and state governments when they can bring employees back to the office and start the process of building their “new normal.” In part 1 of our webinar series on reconstitution, Helena Adams, Veoci’s People Operations Director, will discuss the key things employees need to know while beginning or preparing for the return to the office.
You can watch the webinar recording here.
Lessons Learned from the First Wave of COVID-19
In this webinar, emergency management and business continuity professionals from NYU Langone Medical Center, Children’s Hospital of Orange County and the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force discuss lessons learned from the first wave of COVID-19. The presenters covered topics such as their COVID-19 response, documentation, key takeaways and plans for the future.
You can watch the webinar recording here.
Press Releases and News
Veoci Helps Cities Lead COVID-19 Contact Tracing Efforts
Veoci’s contact tracing capability enables municipal health officials to collect key information on contacts including demographic characteristics, exposure history, and follow-up actions. The form, which can be customized to any public entity or organization’s needs, allows for the identification of asymptomatic or mild cases as well as severe cases because they all have the potential to transmit the virus.
Read more about the solution in this press release here.
Keller ISD Partners with Veoci to Build a Virtual Emergency Operations Center
“We can’t imagine managing this crisis without it,” said Chris McLaughlin, Keller ISD Emergency Management Coordinator. “Veoci has provided immediate help to Keller ISD in our COVID-19 response and recovery, allowing us to safely coordinate critical activities across more than 42 campuses in an effective and efficient manner. We’re able to manage data, resources, and health alerting in real-time, and we know we are just getting started with its capabilities.”
Read the full press release here.
Insights and Best Practices
Tracking Plasma Donations for COVID-19 Treatment with Veoci
The medical community is looking for plasma from donors who have recovered from COVID-19. This is a critical part in finding effective treatments for the many people who continue to be infected. A Connecticut healthcare system has put out a call for donors using Veoci. Read the blog post here.
What Does COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Mean for Business Continuity?
COVID-19 can seriously disrupt business continuity and operations. In this post, we explore what COVID-19 could mean for the continuity of your organization’s operations and how to best respond to the pandemic and how to respond if it starts affecting your organization. Read the blog post here.
Veoci’s Internal COVID-19 Response: Preparedness and Planning Key to Success
Learn more about the importance of preparedness as a necessary part of any business continuity program, and how Veoci has kept itself alert and ready to handle any disruptions. Planning, training, and a focus on employee welfare are key to ensuring organizational survival and resilience. Read the blog post here.
COVID-19 and First Responder Stressors
Among “essential employees”, first responders already face high stress situations every day even when there is no pandemic or widespread crisis situation. Here we talk about how COVID-19 as affected how they do their work, as well as realities being face by healthcare workers who are on the frontlines. Read the blog post here.
Leveraging 2-way SMS Notifications During a Crisis
Communication during a crisis response is essential. This is especially true for the COVID-19 pandemic; many organizations are using work-from-home policies to keep employees safe while maintaining operations. Communicating with remote employees is a key part of sustaining this continuity. Read the blog post here.
Closing Communications Gaps in Emergency Response
We can, at times, see a breakdown of our communication pathways. A situation like the COVID-19 pandemic may be the perfect time for your team to find those holes, as extreme stress and conditions of the event will make those gaps clear. Read the blog post here.
Achieving a Cross-Industry Emergency Response to COVID-19
Emergency management plans no longer exist solely within a single municipality or organization. Now, every emergency management response from organizations across the country must take into account the entire general public. Read the blog post here.
Digitally Tracking Calls and Pandemic Data
Managing incoming calls from concerned and worried community members is a complex activity – lots of different points of information need to be recorded, appropriate actions taken, and answers provided which are consistent and based on the latest information. Read the blog post here.
Approaching Recovery: Getting Ahead of FEMA Reimbursements
Even in the midst of responding and managing pandemic response, it’s important to stay on top of all the documentation you’ll need for FEMA reimbursements; without full and organized documentation, the headaches could be huge. Read the blog post here.
Relying on Data for After Action Reporting
After action reporting (AAR) takes a look at everything that went well and everything that needs work. It looks at the crisis holistically and determines what needs to be done to prevent certain lags in response for next time. Technology can be an excellent tool for supporting after action reporting because it enables you to collect data as a crisis unfolds, and then aggregate it for review in the end. This can help ensure that your organization is ready the next time around. Read the blog post here.
Successfully Reintegrating Society After COVID-19
Society is not going to return to pre-COVID status right away. Quarantining, social distancing, and self isolation are still norms in countries that are beginning to reopen. They’re also focused on bolstering the health system, increasing testing, and relying on contact tracing. Read the blog post here.
Going Back: Reconstitution Plans
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, many organizations continue to ask themselves and local and state governments when they can bring employees back to the office, and start building towards normalcy again. How can businesses and organizations prepare for the return to the office/reopening and structure their reconstitution plans? Read the blog post here.
Veoci COVID-19 User Group
For our customers, we’ve created a user group to discuss how their organizations are using Veoci to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is where some of the best strategies and tactics for countering the pandemic come to life. Other people sometimes have the perspective you need to put the final touches on a solution. We’re happy to offer this resource for all of those organizations and practitioners responding or who will respond to the pandemic.
If you’re a Veoci customer and interested in joining this user group, get in touch now. You can also request access via our helpdesk (login required).
Veoci’s COVID-19 Solutions
Regardless of what your organization is responding to, there are activities and data needs that must be fulfilled. Our solutions range in scale from simple tracking forms to complex dashboards for situation awareness. They all incorporate best practices and other standards to give you the tools you need to efficiently respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These different solutions can be standalone, fully integrated into larger solutions, and can be implemented in as little as half an hour to a few days. For those of you who do not have a notification system, Veoci includes one to send voicemail and 2-way text messaging to all your employees.
To see a sample list of the 400+ COVID-19 solutions our customers have deployed since February, visit our COVID-19 Solutions webpage, or contact us to request a demo of the solution.
How We’ve Been Responding to Coronavirus
In addition to using Veoci for our own COVID-19 response and management, here are some of the other measures we have adopted based on prescribed guidelines from authorities and experts:
- Business Continuity Planning (BCP) Drill: We successfully executed a drill specifically for the COVID-19 scenario previous to state and federal directives regarding office closures. We shut down our headquarters office and required all employees to work from home, ensuring that everyone has what they need to keep themselves safe while also guaranteeing that all our operations continue normally during this event.
- Travel prohibition: We have cancelled all company-related travel, including attendance at all trade shows and conferences, and will continue to evaluate the situation for any meetings and events. We miss the opportunity to meet new people and see familiar faces, but we want to do our part in taking proactive precautions.
- Work from Home: We have instituted and maintain a work-from-home policy for all employees until further notice, and are making sure that everyone is equipped with whatever they need to be able to do their jobs to the fullest remotely.
- Continuous Observation and Appropriate Responses: We have created an internal room and processes for addressing emerging news and government recommendations about COVID-19 so that we can communicate quickly and implement measures to protect employee and community safety. The Veoci leadership team meets regularly and is constantly collaborating to keep this at the forefront of our priorities, along with making sure Veoci is up, running, and fully supported.
- Started a Romper Room to share fun and interesting ways to keep our sanity intact as we work from home full time while caring for our families, raising our children, and finally seeing what our pets do during the day.
From the CDC and WHO
Here’s information from trusted health sources about the current global situation:
- The CDC website: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
- WHO (United Nations) web site: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
- CDC COVID-19 Symptoms Guide
- Johns Hopkins University’s Interactive Coronavirus Map: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
What’s Ahead
As the pandemic continues to evolve, you can expect additional content, information, and more from the Veoci team. Check back on our blog see the latest updates. We will continue to do our utmost to provide support and expertise for all of our customers and will do what it takes to contribute to the best possible outcome.
We wish for good health to you and everyone near and close to you.
The Veoci Team
