Published 15 Aug 2023
What is a Contact Tracing Form?
A contact tracing form is a document that helps health professionals determine who a sick person caught an illness from and track every possible person they have been in contact with while infectious. It helps effectively carry out the contact tracing process, guide those who have been exposed on what to do next, and prevent onward transmission of a disease, such as COVID-19.
In this article
- Importance of Contact Tracing Amidst The COVID-19 Pandemic
- Contact Tracing: How Is It Done?
- Strengthen your documentation process with a digital contact tracing tool
- Featured Contact Tracing Forms
Importance of Contact Tracing Amidst The COVID-19 Pandemic
Even before the current COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing has been used to help contain the transmission of infectious global diseases, such as measles, Ebola (2014), and SARS-CoV(2002); with the current COVID-19 pandemic the world is facing, contact tracing especially plays a vital role in breaking the chains of human-to-human transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which can be spread by people who have no symptoms.
In the context of COVID-19, contact tracing requires identifying persons, listed on a contact tracing form, who may have been exposed to a person with COVID-19 and following them up daily for 14 days from the last point of exposure. As COVID-19 transmission can happen before symptoms appear, contacts should remain in self-quarantine during the 14-day monitoring period to restrain the possibility of exposing other people to infection should they become ill.
With contact tracing, all potential cases are identified, quarantined, and followed-up to ensure rapid isolation, testing, and treatment in case they develop symptoms. The process also helps public officials develop appropriate policy decisions around stay at home orders, travel restrictions, and economic shutdowns. Along with the proper implementation of testing, social distancing, and quarantine protocols, contact tracing serves as an essential public health strategy against epidemics.
Contact Tracing: How Is It Done?
The World Health Organization (WHO) has summarized the contact tracing process into three basic steps:
Contact identification
Once someone is confirmed as infected with a virus, contacts are identified by asking about the person’s activities and the activities and roles of the people around them since onset of illness. Contacts can be anyone who has been in contact with an infected person: family members, work colleagues, friends, or health care providers. All of these should be properly recorded on the contact tracing form.
Contact listing
All persons considered to have contact with the infected person should be listed as contacts. Efforts should be made to identify every listed contact and to inform them of their contact status, what it means, the actions that will follow, and the importance of receiving early care if they develop symptoms. Contacts should also be provided with information about prevention of the disease. In some cases, quarantine or isolation is required for high risk contacts, either at home, or in hospital.
Contact follow-up
Regular follow-up should be conducted with all contacts to monitor for symptoms and test for signs of infection.
Strengthen your documentation process with a digital contact tracing tool
In the absence of a COVID-19 vaccine, contact tracing serves as one of the best defences against further outbreaks. For public health professionals and establishment owners, shifting to a digital contact tracing process can help improve the efficiency of manual contact tracing and case investigations.
SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor), a powerful inspection tool, can help support contact tracers and establishment owners easily convert paper-based contact tracing forms into digital and transform their contact tracing process.. With SafetyCulture, you can:
- create and customize contract tracing forms according to the prescribed requirements in your location;
- ensure privacy and confidentiality of significant volumes of patient or visitor information;
- improve legibility of crucial contact tracing data;
- improve the traceability of data with data saved in cloud storage;
- have the ability to send notifications in multiple formats, such as email and SMS to intended recipients; and
- easily use the forms on a mobile device, whether online or offline.
We have prepared free contract tracing forms below that you can use to help you, your community, and your organization gradually try a digital contact tracing process.
Featured Contact Tracing Forms
Contact Tracing Register - COVID-19
Use this visitor log sheet as a contact tracing register template to keep track of all customers and visitors that come to your business establishment daily. In the event of exposure to COVID-19, information gathered using visitor and customer logs can help with contact tracing efforts to contain the spread of the pandemic. List as many customers or visitors as needed and capture information such as the date and time of visit, name of the customer, and contact details.
Case Investigation Form - COVID-19
This Case Investigation Form (CIF) can be used as a COVID-19 contact tracing tool to document relevant information about a confirmed COVID-19 positive patient and all suspected cases connected to the patient. This digital contact tracing form allows contact tracers to easily input information on a mobile device and ensure the legibility and security of critical patient details. Use this template in SafetyCulture (iAuditor) to:
- input patient’s personal profile;
- include information of residence such as permanent, current, and international address (if any);
- track travel history in the recent weeks;
- identify exposure history; and
- add patient’s clinical information.
Contact Tracing Checklist
This simple and straightforward contract tracing checklist can function as a contract tracing tool to monitor COVID-19 cases. Record necessary information such as recently visited locations, time of visit, and people contacted outside of home and workplace bubble. Use this template in SafetyCulture (iAuditor) to keep a digital record of all contact tracing documents in a safe and centralized location.
