Investing in comprehensive student healthcare creates a healthier learning environment for all.
Recognizing the importance of comprehensive student healthcare management, G2 launched its Student Health Records (SHR) or school electronic health records (EHR) category earlier this month.
This category represents the growing number of products geared towards all school personnel involved and responsible for the student's overall well-being.
Student care is health care
Unlike G2's Electronic Health Records (EHR) category, which represents products medical staff use solely to access and adjust patient data, this new category is explicitly geared toward improving school healthcare delivery and promoting student wellness.
SHR software helps manage immunizations and track medication administration. These solutions offer a digital dashboard where student medical information is located, which can later be accessed by parents and primary medical providers.
Managing student health records
SHR software offers the reliability and security of the medical industry with a focus on students.
The software functions by sharing health form collections and chart visits to the school nurse, as well as the organization and communication that many existing educational software solutions offer, just with a deeper focus.
These in-depth features facilitate communication between parents, school administrators, and students, thus alleviating the issue of parents being left in the dark regarding student care. This highlights the significance of school engagement by allowing students to access reliable care outside the doctor’s office.
Along with school management software and student information systems (SIS), school health records software helps automate student health data collection and add vital information to the student profile. Due to the distinct nature of these products’ functionality and specialized integration, it is necessary to represent these particular products in a G2 category to best serve buyers.
How does SHR differ from SIS?
Similar to SHR, with the ability to enhance communication with school health staff, SIS focuses on the overall welfare of the institution.
Many SIS track all the student data teachers need to manage the classroom. School management software manages institutional resources and improves communication between school departments, administrators, and support staff. These solutions typically fulfill operational and administrative tasks in IT, program, and document management.
However, the critical difference between SHR software and school management solutions is how the prior collectively possesses a core feature from each system and makes one robust student health data solution.
Yet, these robust systems come with their fair share of pros and cons.
The pros and cons of SHR
SHR offers many benefits to schools that result in operational performance and student satisfaction. A key advantage is the digitization of student medical history and records.
This feature allows vital medical documents and health forms to be preserved, and grants authorized school admin to review students’ medical history at any moment. Then, by consolidating all student health data on a centralized dashboard, school personnel can leverage this information analytically to make informed decisions on resource allocation and health program budgeting.
Uploading confidential medical documents to an educational platform may seem risky and scream a potential data breach. However, many SHR systems were designed by nurses with the idea that security would not be lost within the pipeline from doctor's offices to school.
For example, EduHealth is HIPAA and HL7 (Health Level Seven International) compliant, providing users with dual-layered security.
Despite the growing benefits of school EHR software, there are potential disadvantages associated with this technology. These include financial stability, accessibility, and temporary loss of productivity associated with SHR adoption.
A common decision factor for student resources in schools is affordability. School boards allocate their funding where they see fit. However, vital programs and resources for students, such as school nurses, can often be victims of this budget allocation. Therefore, if it is not affordable to provide each school with a full-time school nurse, how can there be room in the budget for a SHR?
This leaves the few school nurses in the digital dark ages of overpacked file cabinets.
Secondly, not all SHR platforms may offer year-round access. For instance, SchoolDoc highlights how it is a proper student health system because it offers access during the school year and summer programs—begging the question of whether other SHR solutions go on summer vacation.
Lastly, the introduction of any new software system to a school can be difficult. Then, adding the element of teaching coaches and educators how to track medication administration becomes complex and takes time.
The SHR space will continue to evolve
SHR solutions work to ease the challenges presented by school budget cuts and system adaptation. SHR is going to revolutionize the education space just as EHR did in the early 2010s.
If the last five years have taught us anything...investing in public health is crucial for survival.
School nurses assist in students' physical and mental well-being and can help with student attendance by identifying unsanitary or hazardous learning conditions. Therefore, the right move is to invest in a school electronic record solution that provides public health personnel ease of administration, efficiency, and performance.
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