In just 36 hours, the FOIS Development team created a daily health screening tool to support a safe work environment. Daily screening was required by the State of Michigan to reopen construction worksites on May 7, and is being used across F&O to help keep COVID-19 from spreading. To conduct the screening in an efficient, socially distanced way, FOIS built it into the F&O time clock system. It was a predecessor to the ResponsiBLUE app developed by ITS.

Now, when employees clock in, they answer questions about symptoms, travel, and whether they’ve had close contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19. Users who are flagged are directed to call the Occupational Health Services hotline for instructions. The system also automatically emails their supervisor. 

The 36-hour turnaround time was achieved through “incredible coordination and dividing up work based on each developer’s strengths,” said Jonas Daunoravicius, manager of App and Web Development. One person programmed the workflow, another programmed the user interface, another set up database tables, and another created testing protocols in parallel so that by the time the code was ready for testing, they could quickly run tests. 

“We were checking in every few hours and making adjustments where needed so we could quickly deliver a solution for F&O,” Jonas said. Without this level of teamwork, “it would have been a 3-day project.” 

In addition to the basic functionality of the time clock questionnaire, the team designed it to have as few touchpoints as possible. All four questions appear on one page and users can press Y or N on the keyboard (using a pen from their pocket if desired) to minimize touching of shared surfaces (though frequent disinfection and handwashing are still necessary).

The day after the questionnaire launched, Steve Brabbs, director of Maintenance – Regions, ran into several skilled trades employees on campus and asked whether the questions had come up when they clocked in. Yes, they said, and expressed appreciation of this effort to ensure the health of people reporting to campus. 

The team subsequently launched a similar screening protocol for F&O staff who don’t use the time clock system. 

“I’ve been incredibly proud of how everyone has been humble and flexible to jump in to address the need for a quick solution,” Jonas said.