New Technology for EPA “Tools for Schools” Program

Sept. 17, 2010 - PRLog -- Minneapolis, MN  - School districts and other educational organizations frustrated by the technical limitations of EPA’s HealthySEAT now have a proven web-based alternative.  ApexOD announced availability of the technology for schools embracing the EPA IAQ Tools for Schools program.

According to Duff Dorschner, ApexOD President and longtime environmental health and safety expert, “ApexOD’s technology was designed from the ground up with a modern, scalable, web-based architecture that breaks through the critical limitations of HealthySEAT, driving the savings, safety, and academic outcomes that matter most.”  He noted, “State and Federal officials who have reviewed the ApexOD’s system’s success consider it a quantum leap forward for school districts.”

The Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool (HealthySEATv2) grew out of a database tool based on a runtime license of Microsoft Access.  While a positive step forward in its time, its architectural limitations and Information Technology support requirements limit the benefits for many school districts.  As Dan Schwarz, VP of Technology at ApexOD explains, “While some good people with honorable intentions have gone to great lengths to stretch the limitations of this legacy technology, HealthySEAT is still fundamentally a checklist template generator assembled in a 1990s era desktop application.”

Dorschner explains, “HealthySEAT can be very intimidating and time-intensive to install, configure, and customize.  Add to that all the manual entry of assessment results and it is no wonder districts get frustrated or give up.  ApexOD changes all of that.  The real benefits of centralized technology for health and safety programs come with integrated data collection through mobile devices and web forms, automated task and flag management, along with connectivity between hazards, written plans, job descriptions, and training.”  

ApexOD’s focus on outcomes led to a unique approach that automates the process of identifying, assigning, and tracking to completion key risk reduction steps that had previously been either overlooked or, at best, performed haphazardly in a time-consuming manner.  Dorschner notes, “Too many organizations adopted old half-baked technology for sake of compliance or because it was all that was available.  Now, schools are discovering that they can drive health, safety, and academic outcomes that matter to stakeholders while achieving a return on investment that goes back to the general fund.  And for those who invested time and effort into HealthySEAT, ApexOD can import data and documents to ensure a smooth transition.”

“For many school environmental health and safety departments, ‘state of the art’ is paper, three ring binders, or static MS Word documents,” says Schwarz.  “For those organizations, the cost savings, performance improvement, and risk reduction benefits are incredible.  For others that are cobbling together solutions using software designed for preventative maintenance or task management, not health and safety program management, this modular platform represents an efficiency and risk mitigation breakthrough.”

Schwarz continues, “The underlying system architecture is a key step forward for the market.  Different organizations handle health and safety in different ways, whether managing functions internally, supplementing with third party expertise, or entirely outsourcing the program management to outsiders.  For the first time, modern tools and technology for longitudinal data analysis, program visibility, and issue resolution are available no matter how an organization approaches health and safety program management.”

More information available here:  http://www.apexod.com/healthyseat/healthyseat.html

About:  
ApexOD is dedicated to building affordable state of the art technology which empowers health & safety professionals to create healthy & safe environments for staff, students and communities.  

Based on over twenty years of field environmental health and safety expertise, ApexOD provides a patent-pending suite of web-based environmental health and safety program management products designed to improve compliance, save time, enhance communication, reduce risk, and lower the cost of delivering a safe and healthy environment in clients’ buildings.

Media Contact Info:
Mark Fournier, Director of Sales – mark@apexod.com +1.888.370.2739 x12

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ApexOD provides centralized environmental health and safety program management technology that drives cost savings, risk reduction, and performance improvement to organizations in a number of industries.