Responding to student emergencies with Magnus Mobile and Magnus911 [Client Success Story]

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Magnus Health
May 22, 2014
Athletics, Blog, Student Health
1 Minute Read

Responding to student emergencies with Magnus Mobile and Magnus911 [Client Success Story]

Client Profile Will_Everett

  • Name: Will Everett
  • Title: Athletic Trainer
  • School: Newton Country Day School
  • Location: Newton, MA
  • Type: Grades 5-12 Private, Catholic school for girls
  • Size: 420 students
  • Website: newtoncountryday.org

Will Everett has worked as a certified and licensed Athletic Trainer since 2001 at both Emerson College and Newton Country Day School. At Newton he teaches Anatomy to juniors and seniors, assists the Athletic Director, serves as a moderator for the Peer Education Committee, and is a high school student advisor. This year he has been working on a committee with other faculty and staff members at Newton to incorporate a Wellness curriculum for the high school students. As an American Red Cross instructor, Everett also teaches First Aid and CPR/AED courses within the Newton community. With his teenage daughter, he delivers food twice a month for the Food for Families pantry at the Sanger Center in Quincy, MA.


In the several years preceding 2013-14, Newton Country Day School dealt with an average of one student hospitalization per year. This year, they’ve faced five. Conveniently, they began using the Magnus Mobile app this year, so these emergencies were more easily handled.

“It’s interesting that we get this newer technology for health information and emergency protocol and I find myself having to use it quite often now,” noted Will Everett, Athletic Trainer at Newton CDS.

The high number of emergencies, several of which were off campus or at a sporting event, meant that Will had to learn quickly how to use Magnus Mobile. He put Mobile and Magnus911 to the test last fall when a senior dislocated her shoulder. “We sent her to the local hospital and that was my first time using Magnus911 from the mobile app. I punched in her name, and I was able to send the info off to the hospital before she even got there. It was a ‘learn by fire’ situation. And it was the perfect situation to do that because it wasn’t life-threatening,” Will pointed out.

Another emergency took place when a student was injured during hockey practice. The rink was several miles away, and in Boston, several miles can mean a lot of traffic, so Will had to utilize Mobile from afar. The coach called Will, and his first step was Magnus911 via Mobile. “What I realized the second time around was that all the contacts were there in the app, and that immediately made my job a lot easier. I pushed the number for the emergency contact, and it was like one stop shopping with everything condensed in one place. I used to have to have a family booklet at home, in the car, in the office, etc. that contained the address and phone numbers for both parents. This time I found it was easier to call the mother from the app and she was able to get down there to ride in the ambulance with her daughter,” Will explained.

Prior to becoming a Magnus customer, Newton CDS used another service, which required them to call an 800 number and say the name of the student and which hospital they were going to. The student’s health information was then sent to the hospital via the service, but this multi-step process still required the family booklets. Will converted some of the family booklet information into a Google Document to access it from his new smartphone, but noted “It was unwieldy and cumbersome. The families give the most critical numbers to Magnus, so I use those instead.” Magnus_Mobile

Other medical emergencies this year have been related to allergies and accidental ingestion of a food allergen. One of those cases was a sixth grader in the cafeteria who began to have a reaction, but Will was onsite and could oversee the EpiPen administration by the nurse and utilize Mobile while with the student. Another instance occurred on a bus while a basketball team was returning from a sporting event. Coming from Rhode Island, the bus was nearly 60 miles away when a student began having an allergic reaction. It was severe enough that coaches became concerned and pulled off to the local hospital. In this case, a coach called Will, who again accessed Mobile and faxed the information to the hospital. “It was truly handy because I was able to call her mother from the app, and she was able to head straight to the hospital on a Friday night at 8 PM. She was then able to provide consent over the phone on her drive there,” Will said.

Will and the nurse at Newton CDS acted as the gatekeepers for Magnus early on. “Things were so busy, especially with athletics, and learning a new program was just too much at the beginning of the school year for all the coaches and teachers,” Will said. Nevertheless, the app worked just as it was needed, with coaches contacting Will, and him sending the information wherever it needed to go. Will noted that in retrospect, it would have been easier if at least one coach per team had access to Mobile, especially in the case of the allergic basketball player because that student had quite a few allergies. “It could have been more efficient if coaches had access then, but now we’ve learned, the teachers will have access on their phones, and they’ll know what’s going on,” Will explained.

In fact, very soon teachers will have access. “We have some field trips coming up in Maine and Cape Cod, so I can set up the accounts for our teachers, give them access to Magnus Mobile, and really teach them how to use it,” Will pointed out. 

Magnus1And next school year, Magnus Mobile and Magnus911 will be a big part of the emergency plan. “I will change the plan in the sense that in the very first coaches’ meeting, we’ll do a training on how to use the app. I’ll send instructions to download the app to their phone before the meeting, and we’ll test out the hypothetical situations with our account, using a fictional student,” Will described. He also added that for those implementing Mobile and Magnus911, the beginning of the year meetings with coaches, nurses, teachers, and administration are the best time and place to teach the new emergency processes. “The best way to do it is a mock scenario because once you’re in the situation, adrenaline is going, and that’s not an ideal time to figure out passwords to your mobile app. A mock scenario with a fictional student should really put the process into play, and the people teaching should have an idea of what to do,” Will advised. 

As with any new piece of technology, the key is to being open to learning and trying a new method. Will attended a Magnus training at the Brimmer and May School in Chesnut Hill in February, but had to leave early and was unable to let the nurses there know how easy it was to learn Mobile. “I think it’s one of those things where some people are a little hesitant about technology and aren’t sure how to set it up. I just kind of plug and played, and I’m not a tech guru, but it really didn’t take a lot of effort. I think it just takes someone to be patient and give it a try,” Will noted.

We echo Will’s sentiments and encourage all our schools to utilize the emergency capabilities built into SMR. If you’re struggling to learn, just reach out, we’ll be here to help you take full advantage of what Mobile and Magnus911 have to offer.

Do you have an example like Will’s that you’d like to share? Shoot us an email with your idea. We love learning firsthand from our customers how to make SMR even more useful! 


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