Delivering health info in emergencies: Sports injuries

Outside of headlining sports stories (e.g. the NBA playoffs and the MLB steroid debacle, to name a couple of current topics), it’s difficult to find a sports issue more widely discussed in the news than concussions. With concussions and other traumatic brain injuries (TBI), literally anyone, of any age, and any skill level can be impacted. But, it’s young children and teens that consistently come up as those who need to be protected the most. When putting safety protocols in place, we often think of football and other high contact sports. While we certainly cannot ignore those sports, we have to take heed of the injuries that can occur across the full breadth of school sports offerings.

A recent NY Times article discusses cycling as the leading cause of TBI, with nearly double the number of cycling cases as football cases, across all age groups. TBI is a frightening acronym, but let’s not forget the minor injuries that can occur too. Student athletes and coaches accept the possibility of injury the moment they put on the uniform or practice gear, but that doesn’t mean injury prevention and reaction are regularly discussed at practice and games. In fact, many student athletes probably believe they will never be the one to be injured, and that’s why preparation is our job. From a sprained ankle or scraped knee, to a dislocated shoulder or concussion, every student put in our care deserves the best protection we can provide them, and that means more than adequately preparing for sports injuries of all shapes, sizes, and severities.

Questions to keep in mind for sports injury planning include:

Do we know if emergency student athlete health information is accessible?
Can the hospital view vital information like medications, allergies, and conditions?
Are parents and emergency contacts abreast of the situation and where the student athlete is being taken for treatment?

Sports injury preparation can be aided significantly with a student medical record (SMR). SMR empowers coaches, trainers, and staff to provide vital health information to healthcare providers treating injured athletes. In the event of an injury, the SMR emergency module, Magnus911, electronically delivers health information to the point of care, ensuring the best possible treatment is available to athletes when they absolutely need it most.

With the PowerSchool, Magnus Health SMR integration, schools using both PowerSchool and SMR can take advantage of Magnus911. The new integration means vital health information is available in the most secure, efficient, and easily accessible manner.

Magnus911 Login

How Magnus911 works: Magnus911 is web-based and accessible from any device with an Internet connection. The system protects information by automatically assigning a unique 16-digit identifier to each student, and in an emergency, first responders and ER staff can securely access vital health and emergency contact information for a period of 24 hours. From within Magnus911, you can also fax the vital health information to a hospital while the student is in transit, and send alerts and updates to emergency contacts.

This is the third in a four part series, focusing on the Magnus Health, Pearson integration, and delivering health information in emergencies.