COVID-19 Weekly News Alert for April 3rd
News from External Partners: Minnesota Dept. of Health (MDH) Voluntary Symptom Alert System for Shelters (SASS)
We are cross-posting this article, as published in the Heading Home Alliance website this week. The Symptom Alert System for Shelters (SASS) is a public health tool to help MDH monitor and respond to COVID-19 cases at summary level.
What is the Symptom Alert System for Shelters (SASS)?
The Minnesota Department of Health is collecting voluntary information from shelters to track summary level information on possible cases of COVID-19 using a new web-based monitoring system called the Symptom Alert System for Shelters (SASS).
This tool is meant to be inclusive of all homeless service providers. It includes congregate emergency shelters or other congregate homeless programs like site-based supportive housing, as well as non-congregate homeless programs like outreach or scattered-site supportive housing. Organizations doing outreach work are also welcome and encouraged to use it for work in encampments.
This is distinct from HMIS. Because HMIS is a client-level database that does not include staff or regular volunteers, and not all shelter providers are in HMIS or will choose to use this functionality, we do not believe these two efforts overlap.
See https://headinghomealliance.com/symptom-alert-system-for-shelters-sass/ to learn more about how this information is collected and used and the link to the SASS survey
Will Your Agency be Adding New HMIS Users for COVID-19 Response? Please Let Us Know!
In the past two weeks, ICA has seen a significant increase in new HMIS users due to new pop-up emergency shelters. We anticipate that this will continue as more shelters open, or agencies increase their data entry capacity in response to COVID-19. We want to ensure that new HMIS users that are working with their agency’s COVID-19 response can complete training and get set up with an HMIS license as soon as possible. ICA always keeps some open HMIS licenses on hand to assign to new users, but as the total number of users increases, we occasionally need to purchase additional licenses from WellSky (ServicePoint vendor) to keep up with the demand. It can take up to a week for us to get additional user licenses from WellSky once they are ordered.
If you anticipate that your agency will be adding more than 4-5 new users for data entry related to COVID-19, please contact the Helpdesk and let us know how many users you will be adding so we can plan accordingly and order more licenses as needed.