RecChat: ePACT - Your COVID 19 Response - 07/16/2020
Episode Summary
In this episode, our host Bret Alarcon is joined by Product Owner, Patrick Hayden, Director of Municipal Support, Cullen Barber, and Representatives from the ePACT Network, Director of Partnerships, Matt Webb, and Client Specialist, Brynn Peebles to discuss the ePACT Network integration with RecTrac and using this integration to adapt to the COVID 19 guidelines.
Video
Transcript
Bret Alarcon 0:08
Hello and welcome to this week's edition of RecChat. I'm your host Bret Alarcon. So today we have some special guests with us from ePACT. We have Matt Webb and Brynn Peebles joining us. So if you have any questions, please ask them in the q&a section, you'll find that kind of at the bottom there, if you Click that little box pop up, can ask all your questions there. So if we don't have time to get to your question, we'll also be releasing a q&a document afterwards, with all the answers to your questions. So Brynn Peebles and Cullen Barber will be helping me with questions today. And also, please use the chat in the bottom to keep a conversation going or any comments that you might have during the presentation. So with that, how are you doing today? Matt? And Brynn.
Matt Webb 0:57
Doing great. Here in Montreal, Canada, where it's a very humid 3435 degrees. I see. I see. Pat laughing right now. So it's probably a bit warmer now.
Bret Alarcon 1:11
What's that? 34? That's Celsius
Matt Webb 1:13
right. Yeah, exactly.
Bret Alarcon 1:17
All right. And speaking of which, we also have VSI zone. Pat Haden. Join us today.
Patrick Hayden 1:22
Good afternoon, everybody.
Bret Alarcon 1:25
All right. So, Pat, would you like to start us off today?
Patrick Hayden 1:30
Sure. So we're, you know, this is an exciting RecChat for me, because I get the chance to mostly listen and not talk. Unlike the unlike the usual, you know, we really wanted to take this time to give our partners from ePACT a chance to show us what they have to offer and really, really give them the floor. We started this partnership about a really a year ago or so going live and had some really great success with customers who use the integration that we have with the ePACT to take advantage of everything that you Beck has to offer and make it a really seamless solution between the two, minimizing that kind of manual work and kind of maximizing the value they can get for from everything that ePACT has to offer. And obviously, in the current climate, you know, keeping track of health and emergency information is more important than ever. You know, we are going to be having another read chat later this summer with another partner of ours CampDoc, who also has some some offerings that are similar in some ways that you pack. But we'll look forward to seeing everything that Matt and Brynn have to present today. And hopefully, the rest of us from VSI here will be able to just sit and listen and enjoy the show.
Bret Alarcon 2:41
All right. So Matt, what do you have for us today?
Matt Webb 2:44
All right. Let me go ahead. I'll share my Screen with you guys here. Okay. All right. Okay, so everyone, Bret, can you see my Screen there?
Bret Alarcon 3:11
Yes.
Matt Webb 3:12
Make sure everyone. Okay, excellent. So let me go ahead and get started. So before I jump into everything, I just want to say thank you to everyone that's joining us today. I obviously know there's there's a lot going on. And also with it in National Parks and Rec month, I also wanted to extend a thank you to everything that you guys do. Especially right now, it's it's not easy doing this. And I think it means a lot to, you know, provide this Type of programming. It's not only helpful for parents, but it's also a distraction, as well. So thank you, thank you to everything that you guys do. We're really excited about this afternoon. I do want this to be an open conversation. There's a reason we call it RecChat. So if you do have questions, by all means, chime in, and let us know. So I'll start off by just giving everyone a bit of introduction on myself. My name is Matt Webb. And I've been with ePACT. For about six years. I work closely with a lot of our partners. So worked very closely with the team at VSI. And also work closely with the National Recreation and Parks Association. And I will also pass it over to Brynn and allow her to introduce herself as well.
Brynn Peebles 4:31
Hey guys, I am a client specialist at ePACT. And I've been with them for just over a year. And I'm just going to kind of sort of try to filter through your questions and pass them along to Matt as he's going so bear with me. It's my first time at the helm.
Matt Webb 4:48
Excellent. Thanks Brynn. Okay, so what I wanted to do is really just kick it off by giving everyone a little background on Who we are, who we packed is. So for anyone that's not yet familiar with ePACT. ePACT is a health and safety safety network that is made up of recreation organizations and and families. And the idea behind this is to allow these families and organizations to collect and manage all this essential emergency and health information that's used to support you guys in moments of uncertainty. So right now we're seeing this more than ever. And, you know, the feedback and the ideas that we get. And the use cases have been really helpful, because this is what ePACT was, was built for. It was built for scenarios like this, you know, scenarios like what we're going through right now. So as I'm going through everything, again, if anyone has any questions, by all means, just let us know. But what I wanted to do, too, is just start out by talking through the different CDC suggestions that we try to follow on our end. So these are some of the common ones that I'm sure everyone's familiar with. So that if your programs are open, or if you're in the process of reopening your programs, you know, one of the top ones we see here is implementing social distancing strategies throughout both the program and also the check in checkout process of kids attending your programs, as well. The other piece behind this too, is intensifying the cleaning and disinfection efforts. So cleaning down any surface, it's going to be used by staff, or by program participants. And then also looking at what can be done to modify that drop off and pickup procedure. This is one of those really high contact activities. Where I think changes will have to be made to to modify that to promote social distancing, and trying to diminish a lot of contact. And then also looking at what can be done to implement screening procedures upon arrival. So what information is being collected in advance to kids attending your programs, or even adult programs as well. Now, some of these percentages that you see on here, you might be familiar with, because it's actually part of a survey that we conducted a couple of weeks ago. And this was done in parts to look at what COVID-19 has done for organizations in terms have adjusted the way that we need to rethink how we're delivering programs and how we're also adapting these new processes that we're looking at. And most importantly, following our local state and local health guidelines. So, you know, one of the ones that stood out the most for us was looking at 59% of these organizations are having to consider or in the process of implementing paperless contactless amid administrative processes. And that's part of what we'll be talking about today. But then this also feeds into the check in checkout process and looking at 75% of recreation organizations are looking at updating this process to help better accommodate families and of course, to keep them safe. So one of the ways that you can help with implementing those sorts of distancing strategies, is by collecting this information electronically, so as many probably know, already, with COVID-19, to conserve, survive for a few hours on both paper and even longer on plastic objects. So with ePACT, what you're able to do is collected information electronically. But it's not just collecting the information electronically, it's also being able to access that information electronically, not having to carry it around on paper or in a binders that you know, might go into a backpack. And it's all coming back to making sure that members are not just members but staff are going to be kept healthy and that this information will also be kept secure as well.
Now, when we talk about the collection of this information, we talk about collecting it electronically. You know, there are a number of advantages to collecting electronically. So number one, it's reducing that risk that we talked about, that's associated with paper and also plastic objects. So whether again, we're talking about sign in sign up sheets, Kampar Profile forums where even the exchange of pens, it's also going to help with promoting social distancing. And the reduction of of contact for staff what it's going to do, most importantly, it's going to allow them to have quick access to that crucial health and emergency information. Not on, you know, the binders, the paper sheets we talked about, but having that information accessible through mobile devices, that they can also, you know, clean down on a regular basis as well. So I see that a question just came in, so I'm just going to pop in and see okay, so absolutely, Megan, I'm going to be sharing this with the VSI. Team after. So we'll make sure that gets passed along. Great. So as we talked about before, you know, one of those high very, very high touch activities that I think we're all used to, you know, I've seen this myself with my my nephew that attends preschool here where I live. And it's that that sign in sign out process, whether it's for daycamp, for preschool before and after school, any any program really where there has to be that procedure that you're going through. And you know, as we talked about it, there's going to be changes that have to be made. And so from that survey, we found that 75% of recreation organizations are in the process of making changes to that. And this is something that not just ePACT but also VSI can help with. And what it's going to help with is really minimizing that contact that we talked about.
So the way in which this can be done on the ePACT side of things is through our contactless check in checkout tool. So as I mentioned, the nice thing is there's options between both VSI and ePACT. I know that VSI recently launched a new feature that helps with self check in and check out on the ePACT side of things, we do focus a little more on the program side. And the way that it works is there's three different ways that you can actually go through that contactless check in checkout process. So the first way actually, is to have staff manage that process. So instead of having a sign in sign out sheet that parents are walking up to, and, you know, leaving a signature, a date stamp, they can actually just have the staff, check that child in. And I know that everyone will probably have a different process in place. But if that process includes just checking, identification, say a driver's license, that administrator can go in to I'm going to check in, you know, little Johnny, and then all that information is retained to an archive. The other method to is going to be through a QR code. So that parent will actually be assigned their own respective QR code. And what they can do is actually just take their device, walk up to another device, and it could be a device that's set aside for just that check in checkout procedure, and they can scan that in, and then that will check them in. And then it can also be set up through a signature process as well. What that will do, especially from a licensing standpoint, is it helps keep a quick count of those members that have been checked in, and any members that also might be absent. Because I know for some of the licensed childcare programs, that is a requirement to provide that information as part of a licensing report for some of these programs, and this might be in more of a sort of pre covid time where we're looking at that bulk check in checkout, where there's you know, 1020 plus kits that are all being checked in at the same time, that is a feature that is available and you packed. But then throughout the day, once everyone is checked in and checked out, or once they're checked in, you can also record head counts. And so it can be in attendance that you run throughout the day, whether it's, you know, an hour to program or halfway through. And then as I touched on, all this information that we've talked about the sign in sign out, procedures are all archived. So not only will it archive, who's checked that child and who's dropped them off under the authorized pickup, but it's also going to provide a timestamp, if there's any notes that you need to include within that as well. And then it will also track the signatures and it's all tracked and retain electronically. So if at a later date, say six months from now, there was a scenario, you know, perhaps it involves maybe a court order you need To pull that information up, instead of going through past paper records, you can actually just go into the platform and pull that up and pull it up by date. And look at the details around that check and check out.
You know, part of maintaining a healthy environment is making sure that we're all looking at, you know, the health of these kids as, as they're coming in. So looking at a daily symptom checker, I know this is also a feature that VSI has implemented. But part of this too, is making sure that this information can be collected securely, and that this information can also be reported on so under ePACT, you do have the ability to collect daily streaming questions and then track whether or not their temperature has been high. And that's going to help for both families and staff to keep a safe environment. Now through ePACT, you will see that there is the option to ask daily auditing questions. This will typically reside within that signup, signup process. So asking about symptom checks, exposure checks, if there's test results, one feature that we will be releasing is looking at immunization status. And then all this information that we're talking about is accessed right through our ePACT administrative mobile app. So staff sign into the app. And then as they're checking kids in and out of those programs, they can access those those questions right on the app. And then as we touched on before, they can also archive all those results as well. And helping to determine if someone you know has been exposed if someone was tested positive.
You know, a big piece here is going to be communication. So really promoting behaviors that are also going to help with reducing the spread. So under the CDC, as everyone knows, priority number one is checking with your local and state authorities for any additional guidelines. Especially for licensed programs. Another strategy that can be used here that the CDC recommends is staggering. That check in checkout period. So you don't have a huge rush of kids. And, you know, for, for presenting an environment where you don't have the ability to promote social distancing. So keeping those groups small, and keeping that process consistent as well. And really communicating on a regular basis, with members to remind them of behaviors that are going to help with preventing the spread of COVID. And then communicating any changes in that process to set that there's no surprises when those families do appear, or when they show up for that program within both VSI and within ePACT. I mean, this is a good thing. And really the nice thing about the partnership between VSI and ePACT is there's options. So within both VSI and ePACT, you have communication tools that you can use within ePACT. The way that it works is there's a variety of methods of communication. So you can send out a message either by email, by text message, or even text or voice. Or you can actually send it out altogether so that you have that communication redundancy. And you ensure that that message is going to reach that parent, we also have a feature called Roll Call. And it's a two way text system. So it actually allows you to ask questions, and then track those responses in a dashboard. So if you're talking about changing the drop off location or pickup location, and you need to ensure that parents have received that message, they can actually text back you know, one to say that they've received it or text back to to say that they haven't or they might have additional questions. Within this too. You also have the ability to include those emergency and pickup contacts. And then you can actually state whether or not it's a general message or if it's going to be an emergency message. And all these messages that we're talking about can actually be sent right through the administrative app. So if you are off site, and you need to get those messages out, instead of having to go back through, say front desk to send those messages out. You can just be there a program director could be there on site, log into the ePACT app and send those messages out right away.
Now as I touched on what What makes ePACT unique is that this was a system that was was built. For this, it was built for emergencies. For the cofounders, of ePACT. I mean, they, they went through a number of different scenarios, where for them, they looked at well, you know, we have, you know, Facebook, to connect ourselves to our friends and family and LinkedIn to connect ourselves to our, you know, fellow colleagues. But there's nothing to connect communities together when it comes to an emergency. And so what you ePACT provides is a best in class security system and also a HIPAA compliance emergency network, that's going to allow families to connect to not just their local parks and recreation organization, but also other organizations in their community that do need access to this information. And especially now more more than ever, so families, if they're connected to more than one organization, instead of them having to call two or three organizations to update that information. As long as they're using the ePACT. They just update that information in one place. And then all those organizations have that up to date information.
Bret Alarcon 21:16
Hey Matt, Question for you going back to the stain in other communication, so is seen in other communication included in the price?
Matt Webb 21:26
Very good question, Brett. So the pricing is actually broken up by a variety of different packages. And so what I can do actually is, we have a couple more slides that I was gonna go through, but I can actually pull up the pricing sheet. And then I can share that with everyone. And then we can also send that out as send that out after as well.
Bret Alarcon 21:47
Perfect.
Matt Webb 21:49
Excellent. Very good question.
Brynn Peebles 21:51
And, Matt, if I could just jump in here as well. We just have another question. And maybe this is more for VSI. It says text messaging is only available with VSI. If you're hosted does ePACT have similar requirements?
Patrick Hayden 22:04
So I think that's the question from Pamela. That's correct, that as far as VSI is hosting solution. I think it's kind of an interesting question. And that ePACT is, is a hosted solution purely right? There's not an on premise option. And I think that's one of the reasons why it's, it's a great partnership. Obviously, a Vermont Systems, we have a mix of hosted and on premise customers. And one of the reasons why ePACT is such an appealing integration is to provide that HIPAA compliance, there's a lot that goes with that. And I'm sure that's a big part of why you guys are, are hosted only solution. So this gives us a way to empower all of our customers, whether they be hosted or on premise a means to ensure that that HIPAA compliance, and that's something that would be very difficult for us to do across the landscape of hosted and on premise customers. So it's for I think, to answer Pam's question directly, you know, ePACT is always hosted. So whether your Vermont System solution is hosted or on premise, the texting capabilities on the ePACT would be the same. And again, the data is always going to be in that hosted HIPAA compliant location, whether you're on premise or hosted on the VSI side, the data is going to the same exact solution.
Matt Webb 23:25
Yeah, and to follow up on that, you know, what helps here is having these options, and, you know, for us, we look at, do what works best for you guys, as, as a department as as a recreation organization, you know, what's going to be most efficient? So if it means sending those messages out? Through RecTrac? Absolutely, you know, if it's, you know, a matter of using it for just emergency purposes, through ePACT, you have that you had that option. So that's actually a nicely lean into, you know, the background and the integration between these two systems. So, you know, what we're doing here is we're taking these two systems, and providing a complimentary contactless solution here, that's going to help you guys better support families that you're serving. So, you know, number one is making the registration process as easy and as streamlined as possible. So the way that we're able to do that is through an API integration. So that data that's required for ePACT to send out your ePACT invites, that data actually will flow seamlessly through RecTrac 3.1. And then into the ePACT. The VSI team has done a really great job of actually putting together a video that explains how this all works as well, and how that can be set up within RecTrac. And what this will do is it's going to eliminate that need for exports, and not just exports, but manual processing. And that's going to help streamlining that registration process so that as families register for camp for, for a childcare class for for any program, that they're not having to wait to receive that ePACT invite. They're getting it shortly after they register for that program. And you're getting that information as soon as possible as well. And because we are talking about health and emergency information, the privacy and the security of that is absolutely paramount. So what this does is it does provide a HIPAA compliant method that will help keep that information safe and secure as well. And then, you know, not having to collect this information on paper forms. You know, this goes back to everything we talked about at the start, where we want to look at reducing any risks that's tied to this. So reducing risk, and then reducing also efforts and liabilities from a risk management standpoint. Because we are again, talking about very personal and very confidential information. So if you have families out there that have any familiarity at all, with HIPAA, that's going to be one of the first questions that they have around collecting this information online.
Brynn Peebles 26:22
And, sorry, yeah, I just want to jump in again, right. Before you just another pricing question. Hannah's asking if attendance is included in the price.
Matt Webb 26:31
Okay, so attendance is part of the check in checkout tool. And the check in checkout tool is actually part of one of our packages. So what I'll do is I'll pull up the packages so that everyone can see the breakdown. But the attendance is part of the check and checkout tool.
Patrick Hayden 26:48
And I think a good time to mention like, like Matt said, it's a pretty, pretty seamless, simple integration. And from our perspective, that was obviously the goal was to make this as easy as possible. So it allows us to not dive into the the RecTrac side of things today, because there's really, there's very little to it, it just comes down to turning on which programs you want to, you know, essentially request data for through ePACT. And by doing so, we're automatically going to, as Matt said, sort of initiate that process to get those registrants that invite to go to ePACT and get the requested information. But there's there's very little to it on the RecTrac side. So for those folks who are, you know, interested in do get on boarded, eventually, there's there's very little to it, it's really just a matter of putting an API key and turning on a Toggle on those programs. And like Matt said, there's a, there's a two minute video that walks you through the whole thing. So it's really a very straightforward process on our end.
Matt Webb 27:47
Great, thanks, Pat. And I do want to be cognizant of everyone's time. So what I'm going to do here actually, is I'm just going to skip ahead, and I'm going to pull up the pricing sheet so that everyone can get an idea of how that's all structured. And then if there are any questions that we weren't able to get to, I apologize, but what we can do is get answers to those questions. And then we can send that out as a follow up as well. And then, as I'm doing this Brynn, do you mind actually just taking this information and including this in the chat, in case anyone has any follow up questions, or does want to learn a little more about ePACT?
Brynn Peebles 28:26
Yeah, absolutely. I've got it, I will post it in the chat for anyone who is wanting it.
Matt Webb 28:30
Perfect. Okay. Okay. So just as a quick reference point for everyone, the pricing free pack is set up in in a bit of a unique way. And what I mean by that is that $5 or $7 per member price that you see, we actually structure that per unique program participant. And so what that means is, if you have, say little Susie that's registered in the summer day camp program, but she's also registered in the after school program and a winter camp, you're actually only paying for Little Susie, once per year. So the pricing structure includes the annual pro member see member fee that you see on your Screen here. The most common package that we see amongst Parks and Recreation organizations is that pro package. Although with the addition of the check in check in checkout tool, some were starting to move over to enterprise to try to streamline that process a little bit more. And then as an add on, you also have the ability to archive all your records electronically. And that's all done automatically. And then, as part of our setup, the way that that works is it's based off of how many forms you'd be using on ePACT. So it starts at $800. And then for additional forms, it can go up from there, but it's usually another seven to $800 per form. And then that's just the one time setup fee. So you're after a year, you're just paying that ongoing, per member fee. And again, we'll make sure that all this information is shared with everyone. Perfect. So Bret, I'll wrap it here because I again, I want to be cognizant of everyone's time. And what we'll do is make sure that we get answers to anyone's questions that we weren't able to answer this afternoon. But thank you. I really appreciate everyone's time. And hope everyone found this helpful.
Bret Alarcon 30:37
Thank you very much for attending. We've been whipping some answers up pretty quickly. So we've been pretty good there. But yes, we'll compile everything into a q&a sheet and send that off. A couple more requests that we had were finding the two minute video from VSI. So we can include that will include powerpoint that you presented today. And I think there might have oh, yes, that part of the pricing sheet so we can include that as well. So we'll have a nice little package for everybody.
Matt Webb 31:06
Excellent.
Bret Alarcon 31:09
All right. So if there's no more questions, we'll be wrapping it up today. Again, thank you, Matt, and Brynn for showing up and telling us about ePACT and what you guys do appreciate it very much.
Brynn Peebles 31:20
Thanks so much for having us. Good job, Matt.
Cullen Barber 31:24
Thanks, everybody for joining.
Matt Webb 31:25
Thanks, everyone.
Patrick Hayden 31:26
Afternoon.
Matt Webb 31:26
Have a great day. Bye
Supporting Documents
VSI RecChat_ How ePACT Supports COVID-19_July16.pdf