Located in Owensboro, Kentucky, Owensboro Catholic Schools (OWS) is a K–12 Catholic community serving approximately 1,300 students across four campuses.

For years, their health services team operated entirely on paper — manually sorting thousands of individual health forms, maintaining bulky three-inch binders, and spending entire summers trying to get ahead of the coming school year. When Sherry Krampe, BSN, RN, Director of Health Services, and Joey Burshears, BSN, 4–6 Campus Health Tech, learned about Magnus Health, they knew they had found a better way. Today, Owensboro Catholic Schools is fully paperless, running a streamlined, digital health operation that supports its students, families, coaches, and staff all through Magnus Health

The Challenge: Paper Overload Across Four Campuses

Before Magnus Health, the OWS health team relied entirely on manual, paper-based processes to manage student health information. With 1,300 students, six or more forms required per student, and four separate campuses to coordinate, the administrative burden was immense.

“We were just having to do everything the pen and paper way. Even with registration, everything was pen and paper. So, I would have to physically go through 1,300 individual health forms to look for EpiPens and seizures and any kind of impairment that may affect their learning… It would take me almost a whole month of my summer just to do that.”
— Sherry Krampe, BSN, RN, Director of Health Services

Each of the school’s campuses maintained its own set of three-inch binders organized alphabetically. When a student walked into the health office, staff had to retrieve the right binder, flip through dozens of pages to locate that student’s form and manually document the visit by hand. Filing those same forms back into the cabinet at the end of every school year added hours more to an already taxed team.

Compiling state-required reports was similarly time-consuming. Before Magnus Health, generating the documentation required by the state could take weeks of manual effort. And every summer, Sherry spent nearly an entire month reviewing forms to identify students with critical health conditions before the new school year began.

While the COVID-19 pandemic brought enormous challenges, it also gave OWS leadership new visibility into the full scope of what the health services department is responsible for on the day- to-day. For Sherry and her team, that moment of recognition became the opening they needed to make the case for a better solution and to secure the leadership buy-in required to move forward with Magnus Health.

Evaluating Solutions: Finding the Right Fit

Sherry and Joey evaluated several student health record platforms before making their decision. Having previously worked in hospital settings, Joey was familiar with electronic medical record (EMR) systems and recognized that Magnus Health represented the school-based equivalent: a purpose-built platform that mirrored the logic, workflow, and security of clinical charting.

“We looked at multiple different platforms that would serve our needs, and we felt that Magnus fit the mold. I call it the Cadillac of the services because it seems to have everything that you need and want at a reasonable price.”
— Joey Burshears, BSN, 4-6 Campus Health Tech

Two factors ultimately sealed the decision: the ease of use for both staff and parents, and how readily the platform could adapt to their specific workflows. Parents could log in and immediately see exactly what documentation was missing, with no guesswork involved. For a team that had spent years chasing down paper forms, that kind of clarity was exactly what they were looking for.

Implementation: Upfront Work That Paid Off

Transitioning 1,300 students from entirely paper-based records to a fully digital system was a significant undertaking. Joey led the implementation, spending several months scanning and uploading historical student files into Magnus Health while still seeing students and managing day-to-day health office responsibilities.

Rather than limiting the upload to current-year records, the team made the strategic decision to digitize historical files for every student, all the way back to kindergarten for those already enrolled. For older students, that meant uploading files that were several inches thick.

Sherry offered practical perspective for schools approaching their own implementation: the level of effort depends largely on how much historical data a school wants to migrate. Schools that only load current-year records will find the process considerably faster. But for Owensboro Catholic Schools, the comprehensive approach was worth it — once the upfront work was done, the long-term payoff was immediate. With every student’s full health history living in one secure, searchable system, the team could confidently focus on caring for students rather than keeping up with paperwork.

Day-to-Day Use: A Fully Digital Health Operation

Since going live with Magnus Health, Owensboro Catholic Schools has become completely paperless in its health operations. The platform now sits at the center of the team’s daily workflow — from student charting and medication administration to compliance tracking and parent communication.

Student Charting & Medication Administration
When a student walks into the health office, staff can access their full health record instantly. Joey described the difference Magnus Health made during high-traffic periods:

“There are times where I have students stacked up outside my office, but I can get through them quickly — and still take care of them in the proper manner — because of Magnus.”
— Joey Burshears, BSN, 4-6 Campus Health Tech

Logging daily medications that students take in the health office now takes just one or two clicks, a dramatic improvement over the manual handwriting required before. Joey also leverages prefilled note templates for common visit types — since many student visits follow predictable patterns, having a starting template he can quickly edit saves meaningful time each day.

Compliance & Documentation Tracking
Magnus Health tracks compliance with all state-required health documentation as well as school-specific requirements. For Owensboro Catholic, that includes:

• Immunization records
• Eye and dental exams
• School and sports physicals
• Baptismal certificate (school-specific requirement)
• Social security card and birth certificate (state requirements)

Before Magnus Health, tracking all of this across 1,300 students was nearly impossible. Missing documents were routine.

“Before we started tracking that in Magnus, we were missing thousands of pieces of paperwork. Now we’re missing maybe a handful.”
— Joey Burshears, BSN, 4-6 Campus Health Tech

State reporting, which previously required weeks of manual compilation, is now done in a matter of hours. Joey can pull all needed data from Magnus Health, format it for the required report, and hand it off to Sherry for submission — a workflow that would have been unimaginable without Magnus Health.

Automated Email Reminders
One of the most impactful features for the Owensboro Catholic team has been Magnus Health’s automated email reminders. The results speak for themselves: approximately 99% of required care plan paperwork is now returned to the OWS team on time.

“Instead of us having to call four different times and say, ‘Hey, just a reminder, your sports physical is getting ready to be due,’ Magnus will send out an automated email to these parents. That really has been very helpful and time-saving for us.”
— Sherry Krampe, BSN, RN — Director of Health Services

Athletics & Emergency Preparedness
Magnus Health has also transformed how the school’s athletic department operates. Previously, coaches were required to bring physical binders of student health records to every away game — a process that carried real risks. Binders could be lost, left behind, or damaged, leaving coaches without critical medical information in an emergency.

Today, coaches access student health records directly through Magnus Health. All sports physicals and athletic clearances are tracked digitally, and coaches receive automated alerts when physicals are due for renewal. The school has also coordinated with local EMS to ensure first responders can access the Magnus 911 feature — a secure, temporary access tool that provides emergency personnel with a student’s health information for 24 hours when needed.

Family Experience: From Paper to Digital

When Owensboro Catholic first launched Magnus Health, there was an expected learning curve. Families accustomed to submitting physical paperwork needed education and guidance during the transition. The health services team invested extra effort in that first year to explain the new system and walk families through the process.

That investment paid off quickly. After the first year, family reception has been overwhelmingly positive, particularly among younger, tech-comfortable parents. Parents with children who have complex care plans have been especially enthusiastic, since they now only need to review and digitally sign their child’s existing care plan each year rather than filling out paperwork from scratch.

Families also appreciate the security and transparency Magnus Health provides. Rather than handing over sensitive documents — including social security cards and birth certificates — to be photocopied by school staff, parents upload documents directly into a secure, private system. That peace of mind has resonated with the community.

Advice for Schools Considering the Transition

Both Sherry and Joey offered candid advice for other school health teams evaluating a move to Magnus Health, especially those operating on tight budgets.

Their first recommendation: document everything your team does. Listing out every task, responsibility, and form managed by school health services can make the value of a digital solution immediately apparent — both to the team itself and to school leadership when making the case for investment.
For schools where budget is a concern, Sherry also suggested reframing the cost conversation: rather than viewing Magnus Health as an added expense, calculate the true cost of your school’s current approach to student health management in staff time, overtime, and summer hours.

A Model for Small Schools with Big Health Needs

Owensboro Catholic Schools demonstrates that a resource-constrained school doesn’t have to accept inefficiency. With the right student health management platform and a committed team, it’s possible to build a health services program that is fully digital, highly organized, and genuinely responsive to the needs of students, families, and coaches alike.

What began as a search for relief from paperwork has grown into something far more meaningful: a complete transformation of how student health is managed, documented, and communicated across four campuses. Magnus Health gave the Owensboro Catholic Schools health team their summers back — and far more time during the school year to do what matters most: caring for students.