Reducing Nurse Administrative Work at Westover School
The Challenge
A 2019 Magnus Health survey showed that school nurses and health staff spent 38% of their time on administrative tasks. Now? Jennifer Hill, Director of Health Services at Westover School, estimates that 50 – 60% of her workload is dedicated to administration.
The COVID-19 pandemic played a major role in this increase in school nurse responsibilities. Between keeping up with changing guidelines, updating school policies, communicating with families, approval processes, and an increase in meetings, health staff have more on their plate than ever before.
Westover School’s health office relies on Magnus Health to reduce their team’s administrative load and streamline workflows. Here are a few ways their staff has benefitted from the SHR solution to reduce paperwork, increase form compliance, and collaborate across departments.
“Now that cell phones are so ubiquitous, parents can just download the app, take a picture, and upload the form. It’s immediately integrated into their child’s record and very beneficial [for staff].”
– Jennifer Hill, Director of Health Services
Reduce Paperwork
When Jennifer started working at Westover, most of the documentation was paper-based. She wanted to take a green approach to health center operations and eliminate paper, where possible.
The introduction of the Magnus Health mobile app has been a gamechanger for the school. Parents can digitally upload their required documents which saves time, reduces paperwork, and streamlines workflows for health staff.
“Now that cell phones are so ubiquitous, parents can just download the app, take a picture, and upload the form. It’s immediately integrated into their child’s record and very beneficial [for staff],” says Jennifer.
Increase Form Compliance
This approach has also helped to increase form compliance, as it’s easier than ever for parents to get their forms in on time!
Jennifer uses Magnus Health to send automated parent reminder emails about upcoming deadlines or overdue forms. This eliminates the need for health staff to manually reach out to parents which saves time and effort.
Additionally, the school has found that moving the form submission date from August to June has been helpful as parents can start uploading their forms sooner. These days, form compliance for domestic students is 90 – 95%!
Cross-Department Collaboration
Another way Magnus Health helps Westover reduce administrative tasks is by improving communication and collaboration across departments. This has become even more important since the onset of the pandemic to ensure consistent care for students.
Westover’s athletic director and trainers rely on the Magnus Health SportsWare integration to track concussions, impact testing, injuries, and follow-up notes. This information is logged in the student’s vital health record and visible to authorized users.
The school’s guidance counselors also use Magnus Health to log their treatment notes which is beneficial for a holistic view of each child. “We love the integration with mental health,” says Jennifer.
Better Student Care
Each of these efficiencies allows Westover’s school nurse and health staff to spend less time on administration and more time on student care. In fact, schools that rely on Magnus Health eliminate an estimated 120 hours of paperwork each year!
To learn more about Magnus Health and how we can help streamline your health office, request a free demo of our leading SHR solution.