Beginning today, Summit Pacific is introducing new infrared scanners at their 5 building entrances to provide quick, no-contact temperature checks to screen employees, patients and hospital visitors for COVID-19.

In a release they state that the five scanners – at Summit Pacific Medical Center, Summit Pacific Wellness Center and McCleary Healthcare Clinic can screen visitors for fever while maintaining social distancing, within seconds. 

The new technology allows for greater efficiency and speed of entry and replaces the process of an employee positioning a hand-held thermometer an inch from a person’s forehead.

“This technology improves the experience and increases the speed and safety of the screening process,” said Chief Nursing Officer, Tori Bernier. “Visitors and staff simply wear a mask, answer a few questions about their health, then walk into the facility and their temperature is automatically taken. It reduces the time it takes for them to enter and decreases the time they spend within 6 feet of others, keeping everyone safer.”

The infrared screenings are coupled with COVID-19 symptom questionnaires and universal masking. Tori Bernier, Chief Nursing Officer said, “we’re doing everything possible to protect hospital patients, those seeking wellness checks or visiting a loved one, as well as our caregivers.”

Anyone registering over 100.4 degrees on an infrared scanner will be discreetly informed by a staff member and will either be given an alternative for their appointment, such as a virtual visit, or be seen in Summit Pacific’s Respiratory Care Unit.

Since the spring, anyone who enters a Summit Pacific facility has been required to pass a temperature screening due to COVID-19 concerns, but most methods of taking temperatures are time consuming, uncomfortable or invasive – creating lines as the hospital and clinics have returned to near normal patient volumes.