COVID-19 Update

Email messages have been sent to all HCST clients regarding HCST’s continuity of services in light of the Ohio Department of Health “Director’s Stay at Home Order” released yesterday, and to take effect at midnight tonight, Mar 23 2020. I want to assure you all that HCST will remain fully operational during this trying period of time.

HCST began implementing procedures last week to ensure we could continue operation in anticipation of this order. The entire HCST staff has computer and phone resources at their homes, and have full access to necessary resources to handle client needs. While our business is within the list of businesses exempted from the Stay at Home order, we are able to function from our homes, and in the best interests of our employees as well as our clients, we will comply with the order as much as possible.

Effective midnight tonight, the HCST office will be physically closed, and HCST personnel will be working remotely for the duration of the Stay at Home order. Our normal phone systems are in operation, and employees are able to answer phones as normal. If you have an issue, please communicate with as normal: either through our web portal, email to support@hcst.com, or call 937-427-9000.

To ensure the health of HCST technicians and client personnel, we must minimize on-site visits as much as possible. I have directed HCST technicians to obtain specific approval from myself or HCST Vice President Kurt Huber before we go on-site. We want to work closely with our clients in these cases to ensure the health and safety of EVERYONE. In all cases, we’ll exhaust all remote efforts before we consider going on-site for resolution.

In those cases where we absolutely need to provide on-site support, we all have to be extremely careful and follow ODH and CDC recommendations regarding sanitization and social distancing. I am particular concerned about use of keyboards and mice to access client systems during on-site visits, and require both HCST personnel and clients take extraordinary efforts to sanitize work areas for whatever support is necessary and minimize physical interaction by maintaining “social distancing”.

As can be imagined, HCST has been inundated with requests for remote access capabilities. We’ve been doing our best to respond to these as quickly as possible! For most clients, we’ve been accomplishing that very quickly –generally within the next business day.

We’ve also been seeing a LOT of requests to leverage HCST-managed phone systems to provide remote phone capabilities as well. Again, we have been addressing these requests as quickly as possible, and have been able to accomplish most of those requests within a business day as well.

In summary, I want to convey to each and every client our commitment to the services we provide and their continuation even with this current situation. At the same time, I am also committed to the safety and health of the HCST team. In all the status briefings I’ve been listening to the past week, it has always been stressed that we shall overcome this virus, but it will take the cooperation of everyone involved to minimize the spread of the COVID virus. Please keep communication open with us, so we can best plan our resources and responses as well.

Very respectfully yours,

Barry D. Hassler
President