Today’s schools rely on a wide range of software systems to operate. Your cafeteria uses a point-of-sale system for lunch payments; your academic division uses a student information system to manage grades and assignments. But what about your health office? 

This department often gets overlooked when it comes to technology. It’s hard to believe, but many schools still rely on paper-based student health processes — both an ineffective and insecure practice! If this sounds like your school, student health software can be a gamechanger for not only your health office, but your entire school. Here are a few reasons to consider adopting an electronic health record (EHR) solution.  

Reduces the Burden of Compliance Tracking 

When it comes to student health, schools have regional and state guidelines to follow. Your health office is responsible for making sure all students are compliant by the first day of school (in a perfect world, anyway!). This extends to annual physicals, immunizations, consent-to-treat forms, and more. 

How does your health staff reach compliance? For many schools, this is a manual and extremely taxing process without an EHR. A solution like Magnus Health can significantly expedite this chore through compliance reporting, automation, and secure communication tools. Not convinced? Read this case study to learn how Woodward Academy’s health office saves nearly 1,600 hours of compliance work each summer with an EHR.  

Protects Your School’s Student Health Data 

From financial information to demographics, family histories and more, your school collects data every single day. Student health data is arguably the most important. How are you handling this information and maintaining confidentiality? 

If you’re using anything other than a dedicated EHR to manage your student health data, you’re putting your entire school at risk for malicious activity and data breaches. An EHR is the number one way to mitigate this risk and meet the required data privacy and security regulations for educational institutions. 

With a solution like Magnus Health, you can rest assured that your student health information remains safe and secure. We prioritize the privacy and security of student health data above all else through: 

• Maintaining HIPAA- and FERPA-compliance each year 
• Single Sign-On and Multi-Factor Authentication  
• User-based permissions to restrict access from unauthorized personnel 
• Powerful SIS integrations 

User-Friendly for Parents 

Your school’s technology has a direct impact on the family experience. If you’re using outdated or disjointed systems that don’t speak to each other, you’re making it difficult for parents to interact with your school. A seemingly small frustration like completing the same paper health form year after year can snowball into dissatisfaction with your entire school — damaging your reputation and opening the door to a loss in revenue.  

With an EHR, you can drastically improve the parent experience with an intuitive, digital process. Take that annual paper health form, for example. Instead of asking parents to fill out the same information each summer and mail it back to the school, your health office can create a back-to-school parent checklist in Magnus Health. Parents can see all of their requirements and complete tasks on their computer or mobile phone with ease. Bonus: if they’re a returning parent, they only have to confirm their information or update any changes. And that’s not all — with Magnus Health, parents can receive support from a dedicated team of experts to help them with health submission challenges, taking that burden off your plate.   

Parents tell us how convenient it is that they only have to make necessary updates as opposed to filling out the forms from scratch every year.

VP for Enrollment Management, Woodward Academy

Improves Productivity and Staff Morale 

The same goes for employees! In today’s digital world, outdated technology and inefficient processes have a significant impact on how your school staff feels about working at your school. School nurse shortages, in particular, are a real issue facing K-12 schools. According to the National Association of School Nurses, only 65% of schools have a full-time nurse. If your school is one of the lucky ones, you want to make sure you can keep them around! 

School nurses reportedly spend 38% of their time on administrative tasks. Much of this work could be automated or outsourced with EHR software. If one piece of technology could revolutionize their workflows and dramatically increase their job satisfaction, isn’t it worth it? 

We love Magnus Health and have no issues with it. It’s user-friendly and does everything we need.

School Nurse & Manager of Health Services, Ridley College

Enhances Student Care 

Perhaps the biggest benefit is for the students themselves. EHR software empowers school staff and parents to work together and approach student care holistically. When everyone works together, students reap the benefits of a supportive, safe learning environment. 

An EHR like Magnus Health is a one-stop-shop for student health information. Everything is managed in one central location, making it easy for schools to keep track of student progress, medications, and action plans. Health staff can communicate with parents directly within the platform to safeguard student data and ensure that only authorized personnel are accessing confidential messages.  

For more information about EHR, read our free guide to learn six ways you can transform your school with student health software.