Podcast Extra: How Mark43 is Responding to COVID-19

COVID-19 has thrown the entire world a curveball.

What used to be normal is no longer normal. What used to be acceptable is no longer acceptable. What used to get the job done no longer gets the job done. 

And few industries have been thrown into more of a tailspin than the emergency responders. 

They’re on the frontlines of this pandemic, pulling 24+ hour shifts, risking exposure to untold counts of COVID-19, and doing their best to keep us all safe and healthy. 

And we at Mark43 want to take this opportunity to issue a heartfelt “Thank You” for everything that they’re doing. From nurses to doctors, from paramedics to 911 operators, you’re truly the people that are keeping our country operating. 

We wanted to take a moment and sit down with Scott Crouch, our Co-Founder & CEO, and Megan McDonough, our Marketing Manager, for a discussion around what Mark43 is doing in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic. 

To learn more about the Mark43 Pandemic Preparedness Package, or get started go here: https://www.mark43.com/pandemicpackage/

COVID-19’s Impact on Mark43

Nobody has been immune from COVID-19. 

But at Mark43, we’ve set up an internal crisis response team to help our customers deal with the onslaught of changing information.

Whether it’s messaging, customer success, implementations, product & engineering, or safety, we’re staying on track to help deliver customized services for our customers. 

Because they’re working 24/7, and we have to make sure that we’re providing the same level of service that we provided before the crisis hit. 

How Should We Respond? 

In light of all that is happening, how should we, and other vendors out there, be responding to customers looking for help during this time? 

It’s that simple. 

It’s about helping departments use the assets and resources that they already have, and use them to address their unique needs in a more efficient way, with some more imagination and creativity than normal. 

How are First Responders Coping?

When the crisis first started to hit, we heard from agencies all over the country about the general concerns that COVID-19 was having on their workforce. 

The general themes were that all of these agencies had concerns about how first responder exposures were taking place, how they were being documented, and that this was going to result in a severely depleted workforce. 

With all these first responders being potentially exposed to COVID-19, it was also the first of many times that we started hearing concerns about death benefits.

Would first responders that ended up becoming victims of this virus receive the same death benefits that they would have if they were to be killed in the line of duty? It was a sobering, but necessary discussion. 

What are We Doing?

So in light of all of that, what exactly is Mark43 doing? 

We reached out to different departments, agencies, and companies all over the country, and came upon three recurring themes around what they needed help with. 

The first was in the short term. They were concerned with the safety of their first responders, communities, & department awareness with relation to COVID-19 exposures. 

In the medium term, the big concern was documentation for local, state, & federal reimbursement post-crisis.

If they needed to involve FEMA to get national emergency funds, would they have an easily accessible place to be able to provide that documentation. 

And in the long term, similar to the medium, the big concern was documentation for posterity should someone need to file for death or disability benefits. 

Based on these needs, we came up with a package that we could offer to departments across the country, offering those first responders & agencies a place where they can document potential exposures, update patient conditions, quarantine status, and test results. 

We saw a need for command staff to ingest an extremely high volume of data about the number of officers & first responders exposed, those that might be out of work, units affected, and common exposure locations. 

We created 2 custom reports, & a corresponding dashboard to meet these needs and drive documentation both in the short term, as well as the long term.

These are challenging times, to say the least. But we believe that through the tireless efforts of our first responders, medical professionals, & law enforcement officers, along with the creativity & ingenuity of agencies like Mark43, we will come out of this stronger and more united than ever before. 

For our press release: https://www.mark43.com/press/mark43-offers-to-donate-a-one-year-subscription-to-pandemic-preparedness-package-for-any-public-safety-agency-in-the-united-states/

Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by Mark43, Inc.. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by Mark43, Inc. employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the view of Mark43, Inc.