As distribution centers and manufacturers throughout the U.S. develop strategies to operate safely in light of the coronavirus pandemic, supply chain managers must change safety protocols and increase security measures to protect employees, customers and their families. 

Many companies, perhaps yours, became early adopters of advanced technologies to safeguard the workplace environment. At facilities and plants across the states, temperature scans are fast becoming the new normal to ensure safe handling and transport of essential goods and services.

While there are similarities and differences in the specific needs of each business, there’s a common overarching purpose for initiating and enforcing more robust security initiatives – to create as effective a barrier as possible to keep the virus out. 

Is your business in the process of setting up access control points and implementing a temperature scan system to verify acceptable body temperatures as a prerequisite to gain access to your facility? If so, you may be interested in some of the lessons learned by Top Guard Security, which has provided more than 50,000 service hours of temperature checks in the past three months.

The tips shared below may help to launch your company on the path to a program with extra layers of safety and security for employees and customers alike.

• Legal advice was sought, and it turns out taking temperatures is not a “licensed” activity in the Commonwealth and thus can be performed by security personnel.
• Human Resource guidance on HIPAA privacy rules — Businesses cannot record temperature data and should not “digitize” it.
• Public Health methodology was provided by Professor Benjamin Dobrin, PhD., of Virginia Wesleyan University, allowing Top Guard’s director of training to develop an “Open Source” Standard Operating Procedures for COVID document for the use of infrared thermometers that is continually updated with best practices to reflect new CDC and OSHA requirements, such as adding face masks for security personnel.

I urge the supply chain community to embrace transformative safety protocols and security measures so all of our businesses can reopen with confidence and with better protection for the entire country. COVID-19 has had a very different effect than anything our nation has endured in recent memory. Our collective attention to heightened security against this invisible enemy will change business operations across the board … hopefully for the better to prevent any future recurrences.