Case Study: Rhode Island achieves rapid, high-response COVID-19 monitoring with SurveyMonkey

How surveys are powering Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo’s fight against coronavirus

Rhode Island, led by Gov. Gina Raimondo, faced the urgent challenge of controlling COVID-19 just 150 miles from the early U.S. epicenter in New York. With hospitals, tests, and case counts lagging indicators, the state needed rapid, real-time data on symptoms, isolation behavior, and emerging outbreaks to guide testing, quarantine and reopening decisions.

Working with SurveyMonkey and Salesforce, the state launched an SMS-based symptom-tracking survey—sent to 6,000 residents weekly with an opt-in daily link—that feeds directly into Salesforce and supports optional HIPAA-compliant handling. The lightweight program, stood up in 11 days with SurveyMonkey’s help, achieved over 84% completion, enabled targeted support (for example delivering food to people in isolation), helped identify potential hotspots, and supported Rhode Island’s data-driven response that included high per-capita testing and a declining caseload.

Rhode Island

Gina Raimondo

Governor