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Seven Emergency Health and Safety Best Practices that Every Australian School Should Know

Announcement posted by Mave 16 Mar 2017

MELBOURNE, Australia, 16 March, 2017 – Award-winning Australian emergency health and safety solution, CareMonkey, has released the seven medical data best practices that every school should know. Implementing best practice around the secure storing of medical and emergency information markedly reduces the liability risk of schools and can help save the lives of children living with asthma, food allergies and other life-threatening conditions.

 

Australian start-up CareMonkey is used by more than 500 schools and universities and over 1,000 sporting clubs at all levels. Worldwide it has over one million users. It eliminates the need for paper forms and gives authorised carers real-time access to accurate life-saving medical data and action plans, helping carers know exactly what to do and who to call in an emergency. Customers are supported from data centres in Australia, Ireland, and the United States.

 

“If we look at two of the most common health conditions for children in Australia - one in four children have asthma or asthma-like symptoms, and one in 10 kids born in Australia have food allergies,” said Troy Westley, CEO and co-founder of CareMonkey.

 

“Today, with more knowledge about medical conditions and their prevention, CareMonkey enables schools to fulfil their duty of care obligations whilst reducing administrative burden and eliminating paper forms.

 

“The best practices to implement around collection, storage and accessibility of medical data will help schools respond better in an emergency. It also saves schools an enormous amount of time and administration and give teachers and parents reassurance that their kids are receiving the best care possible should any incident occur,” said Westley.

 

The seven best practices for schools are:

 

1.     Collect all the relevant information including more than two emergency contacts, medical contacts, medical conditions, personalised care instructions and emergency health information and parental consent.

2.     Go paperless to collect forms faster, eliminate data entry at school level and digitally track entries. Storing data online is more accessible, and can save schools over 100 hours a year chasing up paper consent forms from parents.

3.     Make parents responsible for keeping information up-to-date. When parents confirm the data is correct, the risk of schools incorrectly entering the data is eliminated. Give parents control of this data, and send automated reminders regularly to ensure it is up-to-date.

4.     Give mobile access to teachers and staff carers. The CareMonkey app has offline access to ensure that anywhere, anytime, staff carers know exactly what to do and who to call in an emergency.

5.     Keep teachers trained on how to use the CareMonkey system or whatever system is in use. They need to know how to access the data and what information is required in the case of an incident.

6.     Document incidents as they happen. Memory fades over time, so enter details as close to the time of the incident as possible once safe to do so, rather than back at your desk.

7.     Keep medical data private and secure. Ensure only authorised carers can access personal and sensitive information. At a minimum, your system needs account and password protection, data encryption, and security monitoring.

 

Every school or organisation with a duty of care needs to be aware of best practices that will both reduce the liability risk of schools and save the lives of children living with life-threatening conditions.

 

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About CareMonkey

CareMonkey is a health and safety solution that eliminates paper forms and gives authorised carers access to medical and emergency details, even when they are offline. CareMonkey automatically keeps medical records up to date, and helps carers know what to do, who to call, and what to tell an ambulance paramedic in an emergency. With more than 1 million users around the world, CareMonkey is used by schools and universities, sporting clubs at all levels, outdoor groups, businesses with a duty of care, community and disability sectors. CareMonkey is available free for families. For more information, visit www.caremonkey.com