Implications of the coronavirus pandemic hit organizations across the nation at the speed of light. When it came to closing offices and digitizing government services, many government organizations worked furiously to respond to the growing health crisis, especially for widespread COVID-19 testing.
One area the pandemic hit disproportionately was higher education. With students and staff in close proximity by nature, outbreaks on college campuses began to increase despite organizations’ encouragement of social distancing.
In an effort to get ahead and stay ahead of the influx, the University of Mississippi utilized TourHealth.
TourHealth is an onsite COVID-19 testing solution designed to accelerate testing in communities across the country. TourHealth is a partnership between digital government services provider NIC Inc., health care provider Impact Health and logistics company Next Marketing created to support governments. The solution offers a combined 80 years of industry-leading experience and provides all the logistics, secure technology and clinical expertise to make coordinating testing easy and seamless for governments.
Turnkey Deployment
TourHealth uses proven medical processes and government technology to ensure seamless, quick and secure testing. The turnkey structure can be quickly configured for any test type and can even be modified to distribute vaccines in the future. TourHealth secured testing infrastructure, hired clinical staff, procured COVID-19 testing equipment, utilized Impact Health’s CLIA lab certification for results and complied with all federal and state reporting requirements on the University of Mississippi’s behalf. By tapping into our unique partnership between experts in the medical, government and mobile event industries, TourHealth was able to deliver all of that as a single solution.
Flexible and Scalable
In addition to its turnkey features, TourHealth enables states, localities, agencies and higher education organizations to seamlessly scale services to meet their specific needs.
The University of Mississippi had previously offered PCR COVID-19 tests to individuals through its health clinics. In contracting with TourHealth, the university’s goal was to offer the rapid testing in supplement of its health clinics’ efforts and to allow the clinics to regain their capacity to address other medical needs.
The University of Mississippi chose TourHealth as its partner because of our solution’s flexibility and scalability. TourHealth set up a mobile unit using its turnkey functionalities and within days offered rapid antigen testing with same-day results. The original contract expired before Thanksgiving; however, the university extended its partnership with TourHealth into November to ensure students returning home for the holidays were tested.
User Experience
At the core of TourHealth is the user experience. We start from the premise that individuals have to be a core facet in testing. TourHealth is powered by NIC’s Gov2Go®, the first personal assistant for government. Gov2Go helps consumers navigate government from the convenience of their mobile devices.
Already deployed across the United States with countless services offered, Gov2Go helped the University of Mississippi stay organized by digitizing paper processes and using customized reporting. The app is used to find testing locations, schedule appointments, create site specific assessments and consent, receive results and answer questions in multiple states across multiple testing scenarios, providing a user experience critical to meeting partner needs.
In this case, Gov2Go also helped to meet students’ preferences through a convenient, mobile service. Mississippi has one of the highest rates of mobile usage of Gov2Go, and the ability to utilize the application from a mobile device resonated well with the student population.
TourHealth’s Impact
Since testing at the University of Mississippi began in September, TourHealth has administered more than 2,500 COVID-19 tests to students and faculty. Our mobile testing site was able to accommodate up to 250 individuals per day.
What’s Next
In addition to our work in Mississippi, TourHealth provides testing in South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Nevada and Kansas. Since TourHealth’s launch in August, the solution has administered more than 300,000 tests across the country.
TourHealth’s capabilities are versatile with the ability to transition seamlessly to administering vaccines routinely at scale. States, localities, agencies and higher education organizations will be able to access the same seamless, quick and secure processes used in TourHealth testing with COVID-19 and future vaccination needs.
Visit TourHealth.com or email Angela Fultz Nordstrom for more information.
About Tyler Technologies and NIC
Acquired by Tyler Technologies (NYSE: TYL) on April 21, 2021, NIC is a leader in digital government solutions and payments, partnering with government to deliver user-friendly digital services that make it easier and more efficient to interact with government. NIC and Tyler are united in their mission to empower public sector entities to operate more efficiently and connect more transparently with their constituents and with each other. Tyler has more than 27,000 successful installations across more than 11,000 sites, with clients in all 50 states, Canada, the Caribbean, Australia, and other international locations. Tyler has been named to Government Technology’s GovTech 100 list five times and has been recognized three times on Forbes’ “Most Innovative Growth Companies” list. More information about Tyler Technologies, an S&P 500 company headquartered in Plano, Texas, can be found at tylertech.com.