Welcome! This forum has a treasure trove of great info – Scouters helping Scouters! Just a heads up, though - all content, information, and opinions shared on this forum are those of the author, not the BSA.
An interface for parents to complete medical a/b1/B2 info online so typed physical copies can be generated. Automating this process could achieve the following:
streamline the process of getting this info for each adult and youth.
have readable physical copies of the form on hand
have data to create backup or additional copies on hand as needed
ability to generate pack/den/event specific allergy/dietary restriction reports to help with planning meals and snacks.
Given the push for connected adults in JTE it would also be another “reason” to get parents to setup their access etc.
I know the current PDF forms are fillable but that is disjointed from the actual parent/youth accounts and also doesn’t facilitate the allergy reporting. Only a portion of my unit does the fillable form and most of the handwritten ones are not legible.
BSA policy prohibits electronic storage of health forms by units. Unless this national policy is changed, your request will not be addressed. You will need to work through you Council if you want to try to get the policy changed.
I keep scanned electronic copies of my family’s health forms on my computer and print them as needed.
I am not advocating only having access to and storing digital copies of the medical forms. I am advocating a streamlined way to generate readable physical copies of the form. I am also advocating for a realistic way to have critical info about allergies accessible to leaders for meeting and event planning purposes.
I understand the need for physical copies of the form but they are quite useless when they are not readable. It’s rediculously cumbersome to track these forms in their current form and doesn’t actually help units properly address allergies etc for actual event execution. Right now it’s basically a CYA without practical application.
As I said, if you feel strongly about this you need to work through your council go get policy changes made. The BSA will not produce anything other than the currently available PDFs as anything done on a remote system would violate the prohibition on storing electronic copies. Even temporarily storing the data on a BSA system to produce the forms violates the policy.
Ha! I am currently trying to get my council to understand the need for “professional” / branded email accounts on public facing flyers etc. instead of personal and in some cases very unprofessional emails being published. I had to introduce the availability of Google for Nonprofits. If I started pushing council to address this situation it would fall on deaf ears and get nowhere.
As usual the solution is to push off an incredibly cumbersome requirement onto the unpaid volunteers tasked with ensuring compliance and not giving any real tools/solutions to efficiently and properly achieve the requirements. When a solution is proposed it’s immediately shut down and no open conversation about how to improve the current process/requirements bc “it’s not allowed”.
In my unit I am currently drowning in the process of meeting this requirement for 300-400 separate individuals.
@RachelVirden - any implementation of an on-line med form interface would be something that National would need to implement and the way to reach national is through your local council. What part of this and the BSA rules is not understood ?
Those of us that monitor these forums are volunteers, just like you. In addition to managing our own units, we help volunteers by watching the forums and responding.
The BSA has told us that the will not entertain requests to put the annual health & medical record online or change the current processes. The BSA also has stated that it is Councils that support volunteers, not the National organization so if you want to influence the national organization you need to do so via your Council.
