Despite COVID-19 and its variants still looming large in our daily lives, vaccines and other preventative measures have allowed many workplaces to return to some semblance of normalcy. As part of their reopening efforts (whether a hybrid or full return) businesses are implementing their own COVID-19 vaccination and/or testing requirements, similar to city, state and federal mandates. The goal of doing so is twofold. First, employers want to support a healthy environment as they seek to conduct business in the physical workplace. Second, they must be prepared to meet outside mandates if/when they become required.
Understanding the necessary elements for a safe return is only the first step. Executing a self-enforced vaccine directive while staying compliant with related, long-existing federal mandates (think HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, etc.) is the real challenge.
DataMotion recognized this and quickly pivoted to create a solution. Using our existing secure message delivery API, our engineers developed the VxRM platform to make the collection of employees’ COVID-19 vaccination status and test result data efficient and easy, while helping organizations report on regulatory compliance.
The VxRM Platform: The Basics
DataMotion’s VxRM platform is designed to help organizations securely, compliantly, and efficiently collect employee COVID-19 data including vaccination records, exemption requests, and test results. Once submitted, these responses are encrypted during transit over a secure channel and stored in a zero-trust, governed database. With this scalable and secure database hosting the personal health information, admins can quickly search and sort through employee responses, then filter and report on the information provided. These security measures help ensure your organization meets government compliance regulations while your data is in transit and in storage on the VxRM platform.
The VxRM platform consists of two corresponding parts: the employee app and the administrator dashboard. In the employee-facing application, employees will provide vaccination records or test result data. Once submitted, this information can then be reviewed, reported upon and monitored within the admin dashboard. We’ll speak a little more to each element below.
The Employee-Facing App
The employee side of VxRM consists of a mobile-friendly web application. Employees can access the app once they receive an email (which is sent through the administrator dashboard) containing a link to the employee application.
Within the application, employees can report a vaccine dose, report a COVID-19 test, or request an exemption. Depending on which action is selected, users will be prompted to provide additional information such as a vaccine date or test type. They can upload images of their vaccine record as well.
The Administrator Dashboard
The administrator dashboard can be found on the DataMotion portal. This is where admins can configure their company settings, add or upload the list of employees required to provide their vaccination status, and even cobrand the employee app. Once employees submit their responses, the administrator dashboard can be used to quickly search and sort through the submitted data as well as report and analyze their company’s general COVID-19 vaccination status. These reports and analyses can then be exported into a CSV and passed along to meet regulatory compliance.
Agility and Flexibility
The DataMotion team designed the VxRM platform to be agile and adaptable to your organization’s unique needs. For instance, you may want your employees to be tested on a weekly, rather than bi-weekly, basis. This is configurable with the admin dashboard, allowing flexibility for organizations to customize their unique requirements and ensure company policies are being enforced.
As we move forward, new requirements and options are expected. For example, booster shots may be required in the coming months for people to be considered fully vaccinated by the CDC. As new medicines are developed, companies may want to examine how those with positive COVID-19 test results are treating their illness in order to determine the length of time before an employee can return to work. With these possibilities in mind, the VxRM platform’s flexible and agile design will allow us to quickly update and add new features as mandates and requirements continue to change.
Key Takeaways
Normalcy, or something similar, comes with a price. To accommodate a return to the office in a safe and compliant manner, companies across industries are moving forward with vaccination requirements of their own. As they do so, the DataMotion VxRM platform will ensure that organizational and/or government mandates are compliantly fulfilled while avoiding logistical slow-downs.
To sum up, the VxRM Platform:
- Contains an easy-to-use, mobile-friendly, cobranded web application where employees can quickly upload their vaccination status and test results.
- Securely collects and stores sensitive PII and PHI data, helping your organization stay within regulatory compliance.
- Allows administrators to easily search and sort through as well as report on submitted responses to ensure your employees can safely come to the office.
In our next post, we will review the ins and outs of the VxRM platform and give a functionality overview. For further information, we invite you to visit our VxRM site or review our Employee Guide for Using the DataMotion VxRM and Admin Guide to Configuring the VxRM Application for more information and step-by-step guidance on successfully utilizing our platform. If you have any additional questions, stop by our documentations page or contact our sales team today.
