Re-enrollment today: How electronic forms transform the process

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Magnus Health
January 13, 2015
Blog
1 Minute Read

Re-enrollment today: How electronic forms transform the process

updated_ESD-146524-editedThe progression of technology over the last fifteen years is incredible. Not long ago, cell phones were a rarity and wireless internet was just becoming a staple in American homes. Fast forward to today and schools have active Twitter accounts while students use iPads to check into the school nurse’s office.

We’re no strangers to the technology conversation, either. After more than eight years of working directly with schools to help them bring their student health records online, we know that technology has enormous benefits, especially during re-enrollment.

We’ve seen schools that we work with transform their re-enrollment process by bringing their health and signature-only forms online. So if you’re wondering how to make re-enrollment run more smoothly, then you came here at a good time. Let’s talk about how electronic forms can change the way you think of re-enrollment.

ESD

Increased efficiency

We’re huge advocates for saving time and being more efficient in the school health center. But saving time isn’t just for school nurses. The admissions office can save time, too.

To start, take a look at the list of re-enrollment forms you currently have. Then look at how many of those are health-related or signature-only forms. 

That includes Consent to Treat forms, insurance information, emergency contacts, physicals, and many more. Wouldn’t it be nice if each of those forms could be completely erased from your stack of re-enrollment forms that get put in the mail each year? We think so. And that’s why electronic forms are so helpful.

Electronic forms, complete with electonic signatures when needed, take time and energy off of everyone’s hands. They transform the process of re-enrollment. Nothing needs to be printed, mailed, or returned to the school since it all lives in an online account that parents and applicable students log into.

For Magnus users, online parent accounts are hosted by our secure MyMagnus parent portal. It’s the one-stop shop for parents to securely and easily fill out student health forms – including those that are due at re-enrollment.

And don’t forget about one of the coolest time-saving features made possible by electronic forms: Conditional questions. Instead of asking every single parent to fill out allergy information, you can ask a conditional question such as “Does your child have any allergies?”. Then, parents only fill out the respective Anaphylaxis Emergency Action Plan if they answered “yes.”

Decreased paper trails

community_earth_day_recycling_love_the_earth_smallerOkay, so using electronic forms saves time for the school and for parents. We get that.

But a residual – and hugely beneficial – side effect of using electronic re-enrollment forms is that they save the environment, too.

Recycling at schools may be more common than it used to be, but we all still have progress to make considering that 75% of waste is recyclable, yet we only recycle 30% of it. That’s a fairly depressing statistic if you ask me. But the good news is that electronic re-enrollment forms bring us all one step closer to a green health center and school.

Less forms, less paper, less waste. That’s a world I’d like to live in.

Everything in one place

We’ve covered the practical benefits of electronic re-enrollment forms: Saving time and saving the environment. But let’s not forget about the most important benefit: Saving your sanity.

Do you ever feel like forms gain magical powers during re-enrollment? Like some of them grow legs, then get up and run away? We’ve certainly heard tales of missing forms, and truthfully, nothing surprises us anymore.

Electronic forms help you avoid those horror stories by keeping all electronic documents in one secure online portal. You can control when forms are due, send out automatic email reminders to parents, and even directly email parents based upon student groups such as sports teams or graduation year. Now that sounds like a good way to maintain sanity.

Electronic documents make sense, plain and simple. So before re-enrollment takes its toll in paper cuts and lost forms, consider how easily you could transform your process. Find out how with our best practices for re-enrollment!

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