Industries That Need Wearable Contact Tracing Tools Now

The global COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to a standstill, leaving many wondering what this post-coronavirus reality will look like. While the country remains in limbo, businesses continue to grapple with the best ways to keep employees safe, including ways to oversee the spread of the virus, minimize contact with infected patients, and gain control over the health and well being of their workforce. 

We previously introduced ResCUE, our proven smart-signaling badge, which provides added protection for essential workers. It helps enforce social distancing practices via an easy-to-use wearable, and records person-to-person interaction data so management can pivot business operations as needed. It can work for any business, but wearables like ResCUE may be the best, and potentially only, option for a variety of industries —from construction sites to industrial environments, and even senior care. Let’s take a deeper look as to why: 

Construction Sites 

Construction sites are inherently complex environments. With heavy machinery and equipment, hundreds of people working in close quarters, and many jobs happening simultaneously, it can be hard to keep people apart while on the job. Most construction sites don’t allow employees to take smartphones onto worksites, and workers that sneak them onto a location may not have them readily on them or be able to check them. This means app-based software won’t yield the results site managers need to track worker whereabouts or be able to signal to workers in real-time that they are getting too close to one another. Wearables offer an alternative. They can remain on workers at all times, tucked out of the way, and work automatically, so in a site teeming with people and activity, employers can get real-time information about breaking social distances and tracking interaction.  

With hundreds of workers completing various tasks across large worksites, it becomes nearly impossible to know where anyone or who anyone is at any one time using traditional contact tracing methods. For instance, when workers are wearing construction gear like hard hats or protective eyewear, it could be difficult to easily identify and remember one another. For example, if a worker tests positive for COVID-19 and a manual contact tracer asks him to identify who he has recently been in close contact with, he might remember helping someone with a project, but have a hard time remembering who it was hiding behind all of the gear. ResCUE eliminates the guesswork and gives employers complete visibility across the job site to identify points of close employee contact. 

Industrial Environments 

Workers in the mining, oil, and gas extraction industries are crucial to our economy. Already dangerous jobs, the terrains in which these workers operate, such as oil rigs and mine shafts, present a number of challenges—namely, hard-to-get WiFi and cell signals. Right now, a lot of people are working remotely, but folks in industrial fields are actually REMOTE—working in rugged and dangerous environments, without modern conveniences like an Internet connection. With a wearable like ResCUE, there is no dependency on WiFi or cell towers, offering a smart and safe choice for contact tracing within such challenging work environments. 

Manufacturing Plants

Manufacturing assembly lines are dynamic, fast-paced, and filled with employees working closely to one another. The ability to properly comply with social distancing guidelines—at an overcrowded assembly line for example—is critical to containing and slowing the spread of COVID-19. When workers are within 6 ft. of each other,  a wearable like ResCUE glows red, to alert the user to move to a safer social distance. In the event that there is a confirmed COVID-19 case at the plant, ResCUE provides employers with a log of all worker interactions so they can alter operations without having to shut down the entire plant. 

Senior Care

Senior citizens are among one of the most vulnerable populations at risk for contracting COVID-19. To protect patients, it’s important to deploy dependable contact tracing to yield the spread of the virus. However, senior living facilities garner a lot of foot traffic, making it tricky to track every interaction. App-based contact tracing solutions are not ideal for senior living facilities, as most seniors don’t own a smartphone, or may not have a phone at all, and could have physical or cognitive limitations that hamper their ability to use them. Manual contact tracing also creates an added layer of complexity, as senior citizens may have memory lapses and won’t be able to readily recall their activity. Smart badges offer an easy, automatic solution that curves these challenges.

Additionally, smart badges can not only protect patients, but health care workers as well. For example, if a patient tests positive for COVID-19, the data gathered by the badges will identify what patients that they took care of, so they can take proactive measures.  

The Bottom Line 

Wearables are an ideal solution for any business, but for a myriad of industries—they’re the smartest choice. From all of us at Proxfinity, we look forward to solving your business’s COVID-19 challenges and helping employees maintain safe working distances. 

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