In every team and department at Northwest Vista College, there are always great stories to tell that show faculty and staff going above and beyond.While it’s hard to capture every story, we hope to periodically share in this space some of the major accomplishments or projects that are taking place. Members of the executive team will write about important topics that they feel NVC employees should be made aware of.
Let us know about the positive things your area is doing to help students or improve processes by contacting myself or NVC Marketing & Strategic Communications
– Dr. Ric Baser, NVC President
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Erin Sherman
NVC Vice President of Colleges Services
Northwest Vista College has been assessing, monitoring, preparing for, and reacting to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic for over eight months. So much has changed as a result of these efforts, but the NVC community remains consistent as a resilient, caring, creative community committed to personally safeguarding one another.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
We receive questions regularly about what can be done to assist the efforts to address the impact of COVID-19 at NVC. One of the most critical ways you can assist is ensuring that EACH and EVERY potential exposure, confirmed exposure, positive test result, and onset of COVID-19 symptoms is IMMEDIATELY reported, whether the affected person (individual who has been exposed to COVID-19, tested positive for COVID-19, or is exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms) has been onsite at NVC or is working/learning remotely. Reports need to be submitted for employees working onsite or remotely, students learning onsite or remotely, vendors onsite within the past two weeks, and community members or others onsite within the past two weeks.
WHO CAN SUBMIT A REPORT?
ANYONE can submit a report. It is preferable for the affected person to submit a report, but anyone can submit a report regarding an affected person. The MOST IMPORTANT thing is that a report is submitted IMMEDIATELY.
Faculty members can submit a report for a student impacted, supervisors can submit a report for an employee impacted, vendor points of contact can submit a report for a vendor employee impacted, etc. It is PREFERABLE for the affected person to submit the report themselves. Please encourage the affected person to submit the report and then verify the report has been submitted to ensure the most accurate information is received as quickly as possible.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
It is CRITICAL that a report is made whether the affected person has been onsite or remote (vendors, community members, or others onsite within the past two weeks) for several reasons.
- Access requests and access lists are reviewed before submission to verify that no one on the list is an affected person.
- Reports involving individuals who have been onsite trigger several follow-up actions, including close contact identification, disinfection of physical spaces, Risk Management follow-up, quarantine timeframes, access schedules, notifications, etc.
- Reports involving individuals who have not been onsite trigger several follow-up actions, including Risk Management follow-up, quarantine timeframes, access schedules, notifications, etc.
HOW DO YOU REPORT?
The current reporting process begins with you emailing Garvin Dansby (gdansby3@alamo.edu) with the affected person’s name, Banner ID, ACES email address, and phone number. You will receive follow-up instructions, the reporting form, and requests for information from Garvin or a member of the Risk Management team. Respond IMMEDIATELY to requests for information.
Good news is coming SOON! For months, the COVID-19 Incident Report has been submitted via a manual, email-based reporting process. Many times, requests for follow-up information have not responded to, and the form has been submitted incomplete or blank. The delays in information impact the ability to respond. However – NVC is changing this process for the better! Thanks to Cynthia Rosas from NVC ICT Application Development, the COVID-19 Incident Report has been expanded to gather necessary information up front and has been transitioned to a Qualtrics reporting form. The draft is currently being tested by the district-wide College Services and Risk Management team members serving on the COVID-19 Recovery Task Force and Incident Command team. We will notify the NVC community and post the link to the survey as soon as testing is complete. THANK YOU, CYNTHIA!!!!!!!
FOLLOW-UP INSTRUCTIONS FOR AFFECTED PERSONS FOLLOWING REPORTING
Employees should stay home, notify their supervisor, and respond to any phone calls or messages from Garvin Dansby, NVC coordinator of College Risk Management, the NVC Risk Management team, and Alamo Colleges District Enterprise Risk Management.
Students should stay home, notify their instructor, and respond to any phone calls or messages from Garvin Dansby, NVC coordinator of College Risk Management, NVC Risk Management team, and Alamo Colleges District Enterprise Risk Management.
Do not come to campus until released to do so by Risk Management. Note, the one-time critical access procedure for employees not identified and scheduled as working onsite remains applicable following the end of the quarantine timeframe provided by Risk Management.
Respond to all requests for follow-up information from Risk Management.
THANK YOU NVC!
Keeping the NVC community protected from the spread of COVID-19 depends on the response and follow-through of each and every one of us. Reporting is KEY to reducing the spread of COVID-19 and supporting our NVC family. THANK YOU for all you have done and continue to do as we navigate through this together.