Contact Tracer
Jefferson County Public Health is currently searching for a Case Investigator with solid communications skills who's interested in making a positive contribution to our county and region. This position provides you the opportunity to work for a county that thrives on working collaboratively and overcoming challenges. We are seeking someone with a lot of enthusiasm for this role, someone who loves what they do and is motivated to share their knowledge with those with whom they work.
The purpose of this position is essential in controlling the spread of COVID-19 and calling close contacts of diagnosed COVID-19 cases and implementing disease control measures.
Schedule for this position is flexible. 40 hour work-weeks with option of working evenings and/or weekends.
Essential Duties
Interview close contacts of confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases with designated interview tools, following JCPH case investigation and contact tracing protocols.
Communicate with contacts in a professional, culturally sensitive and empathetic manner.
Collect and record required information into the Redcap contact tracing database or equivalent implemented by CDPHE.
Provide contacts with approved information about quarantine or isolation procedures, refer them to a testing site according to protocol and/or to a JCPH Case Manager for resources, as appropriate.
Enroll contacts in symptom monitoring when appropriate, per protocol.
It’s easy to imagine a contact tracing call, in which a public health worker calls to either discuss the contacts someone who is positive for COVID-19 has had or notify a person that they may have been in contact with someone who has the disease, as stressful for all involved.
But Debby Bower, who works as a contact tracer and case investigator for Jeffco Public Health, doesn’t see it that way.
”With all of us collectively pulling together, it is a marvelous communal process of trying to be protective and supportive of keeping people as healthy as possible and limiting the spread of COVID-19 as much as possible,” said Bower, who makes dozens of such calls each day.
Case investigators contact each person who tests positive and requests information about people they have been in contact within recent days. Once all the information is gathered, the phone calls begin. On average, Billings says case investigators contact 10 to 20 people for each COVID-19 positive result. The calls do not reveal who tested positive and last about ten minutes.
"We verify that we are speaking to the correct person, we confirm if they are currently symptomatic, we provide them with either quarantine or isolation recommendations," Billings said. "Based on the symptoms, we recommend them to be tested."
