Is there any liability with taking temperatures before allowing members and vendors in the house?
The actual question was as follows:
We are thinking about taking temperatures of members and vendors this fall at our chapter houses. For members, it would be upon move-in and then perhaps once per week when they have to update their Attestation to Good Health form. For vendors (housekeeping, kitchen staff, outside maintenance), it would be each time they came to work (daily). Is there a liability involved with this?
There is a section of our To Consider Before Reopening resource which touches on Testing (page 9). You are welcome to take temperatures as long as you are following local health guidelines. We have also seen some arguments in favor of other symptoms being more important to track than fevers, detailed in these articles:
Many companies are using a checklist of some sort – here is a good example (MJ’s guide to creating return to work plan is here, much of which can be easily transferable to the chapter house). Liability and negligence might come into play if you did not follow through with promised health and safety measures or knowingly expose those in your care; for example, you require temperature checks daily or weekly, but stop doing so halfway through the semester or do not act on results received.