How Greet Health Technologies Helped UNC Stabilize COVID-19
Welcome back to our explanation of Greet Health, the hardware-software solution that can help you hold in-person events safely.
Our intro article has already covered how Greet Health’s three emerging technologies keep visitors safe before, during and after your event. (Spoiler: there are coordinated COVID-19 tests, AI to encourage mask-wearing and crowd-flow strategies to maintain social distancing.)
You might want to read that overview first. But it’ll only give you half of the picture. The second, crucial thing you should know about Greet Health is its successful test-run at the University of North Carolina. Its technologies helped reopen in-person classes for the thousands of students, faculty and staff.
Reopening In-Person Classes at UNC
You might’ve heard how UNC tried to reopen in-person classes in September 2020. But during its first week of physical classes, the university failed that first attempt. The COVID-19 positivity rate among students and staff leaped from 2.8% to 13.6% within a week (Aug. 10 through Aug. 16). In that same period, communal spread skyrocketed. The university reported four clusters — five or more positive cases grouped together — spread across dorms, apartments and fraternity houses. By the second week of school, UNC had returned its classes online.
Obviously, UNC needed to retool its approach to limiting the spread of COVID-19. That’s where the Greet Health technologies came in, though at the time they weren’t integrated as they are now. Instead, the technologies supported related parts of UNC’s improved COVID-19 response without fully joining together.
Step one was to unveil the Health Greeter Kiosks to encourage mask-wearing and social distance guidelines. “The kiosks were installed and used at UNC football games,” says Max Hudnell, a computer vision engineer at the Reese Innovation Lab. Specifically, they welcomed fans to the UNC-Virginia Tech matchup on Oct. 10, 2020.
“We put two kiosks at every [stadium] gate and in the common areas,” says Steven King, Chief Innovation Officer at the Reese Innovation Lab. He adds that, for the spring semester, the health greeter kiosks have also appeared at the entrances of six UNC buildings.
Hudnell explains that the kiosks bolstered the overall awareness that UNC needed from its students and staff. “They serve as a new channel that uses technology to grab people’s attention,” he says, “and encourage them to be mindful of the pandemic.” Consistent messaging helped support the overall turning of the tide on campus.
Introducing the Hall Pass System
The university’s success in Spring 2021 also depended on adopting the Hall Pass system (a variant of the “ShowPass” prong of Greet Health). This website coordinates all the weekly student and employee tests available at three in-person testing sites in Chapel Hill and, since its October launch, has helped UNC clamp down on COVID-19’s spread.
The system records students’ self-administered COVID-19 tests, manages results and notifies students when they become available (usually 24 to 48 hours after the test). “Hall Pass also helps students to know when to arrive for class and at what door,” King adds. “Our systems have determined the safest way to enter and exit buildings, and they direct students in that.”
The RIL team that designed Hall Pass took its data privacy further than HIPPA and FERPA compliance — they specifically made Hall Pass a website, not an app, to better secure its users’ data.
RIL’s commitment to human-centered design enabled Hall Pass to help stabilize COVID-19 levels by mid-February. The campus’s COVID-19 dashboard reported a positivity rate of only 0.6% among students and employees since January 2021 (from 63,850 tests). Between Feb. 10 and Feb. 16 (the most recent window of data), that positivity rate dipped even lower, to 0.2%.
These stats tell a safer, more confident story than the panicked case counts of Fall 2019. All thanks to the mandatory testing regime that Hall Pass supported, eased and sharpened. “These technologies are enabling students and faculty to return to campus,” King says. “And students, faculty and staff are appreciative of the new system. It provides comfort and reminders they want.”
Reintroducing Live Events to Your Visitors
Hall Pass has become ShowPass, for your purposes. If you also implement its use, the system’s success at UNC could be yours as well. But Greet Health integrates the three technologies — ShowPass, FastPass and Health Greeter Kiosks — more than the UNC COVID-19 response had. On UNC’s campus, the technologies helped encourage students’ safety, but without a unified system that joined them. And so, the system’s success for smaller, quicker in-person events could prove even greater than its test run in Chapel Hill. Why? The integration of Greet Health’s tools.
Now might be the time to learn how Greet Health will improve your in-person events. Keep learning for yourself, or feel free to contact us directly. We’re waiting to help you answer the key question for your organization: why not greet 2021 with healthier, safer events?
