Protecting the Herd – Efficient Temperature Scanning with Opgal Solutions

By Neal Bellamy, IT Director at Kenton Brothers

If you really think about it, “Protect the Herd” has really been the theme of 2020. Since March, everyone in the United States has been hyper-focused on making sure COVID spreads as slowly as possible. Ideally, we could get the spread to stop altogether, but so far, we’ve not been able to achieve that. Of course, as we all know by now, all it takes is one infected person to hang out with a new herd and that herd typically becomes infected.

Unfortunately for human herds, we’re part of multiple herds. Each of us probably has a family herd, a work herd, a school herd, and a friend herd.

So how do we protect the herds?

The most effective way to protect the herds is complete isolation. But as social creatures, that only lasted for so long. The show must go on, right?

One of the most effective ways to make sure herd members are healthy is to monitor body temperature. That seems like a simple enough task, but as the size of the group grows, the task gets more daunting. How do we scan temperatures for a couple of hundred people every day? For large businesses and schools, this is the challenge.

Opgal, with their elevated body temperature (EBT) scanning solution is answering the challenge.

Elevated body temperature scanning is a little different than measuring everyone’s internal body temperature. These scans measure skin temperatures to screen people that need to be checked out more thoroughly. Scanning skin temperature is much faster, and much less invasive, which helps hundreds of people get to school or work in minutes rather than hours.

When someone passes in front of the camera, the thermal camera scans their skin temperature. It will instantly alert the appropriate people that someone’s skin temperature is elevated and they should get checked out. After someone has been flagged, they need to have their temperature checked and fill out a questionnaire (or other method of health verification). This targeted testing focuses on the people who are most likely to be sick. This saves time, money, and stress for everyone involved.

 Safe Spaces

A local school district in Mid-Missouri has implemented Opgal at all of their primary and secondary schools. Nine Opgal cameras installed on mobile carts monitor staff and children as they enter the schools. They’re able to process over 1,500 people every day. The Opgal solution has been installed since the end of August. Although Opgal has not “caught” anyone with an infection yet, there also have been no school-related infections to date. (That herd must be doing the right things!)

If your company faces the same kinds of challenges, like protecting a larger herd every day, let us help you meet the challenge head-on!