Mass physical examinations are not a new concept for most schools. However, each year they can lead to lots of stress for athletic directors, coaches, and athletic trainers. Knowing this (and because our mission is to simplify sports medicine), DragonFly MAX can step in to make physical exams run smoothly.

Going Fully Electronic

Sticking with Paper Copies

Going Fully Electronic

For those that go whole hog and decide to use our entire electronic platform, including the electronic physical exam form, we have several suggestions of how to prepare.

Make sure you have enough laptops or iPads for each individual at each exam station.
Have a check-in station where clerical staff can look up an athlete's information in the "Schools & People" window and ensure they have completed all of their required participation forms prior to the exams.
Provide a few additional computers for parents/athletes who don't complete their paperwork before arrival (they can also use the browser on their smartphones).
Login to each computer prior to beginning physical exams with an administrator account.
Open the "Schools & People" window in the DragonFly MAX website and make sure you have the following settings:
- Viewing: Custom | Viewing: All Sports | Athletes | Everyone

Individual Stations

The next step is to ensure that the providers at the individual stations (Height & Weight, Eye Exams, Blood Pressure, etc.) understand how to complete their sections of the exam. To do so, they will complete the following steps:

Click on the name of the athlete in the "Schools & People" list.
Select "Physical Examination" from the list of School Paperwork requirements.
Click the button that says "Fill Out Electronically"
- If a form has already been started, click that form from the list to continue with it.
Enter the necessary information from your station in the appropriate fields.
Click the back button in the top left corner of the page to return to the athlete's profile.
- All information is saved automatically...nothing special to do there.

In The Physician's Exam Room

Additionally, it can be helpful to provide a scribe in each Physician's exam room. This person could be a nurse, athletic trainer, or other provider who handles the forms to allow the physician to stay focused on the individual patient. Having this role also prevents the line from slowing down. The scribe should do the following things:

Look up the Athlete in the "Schools & People" list.
Click to view the health history form including the "Yes" answers and explanations.
Click the athlete's name to view their profile and finalize the Physical Examination Form.
Have all fields completed for the Physician to sign at the end of his/her exam.
Give the computer to the physician so he/she can add a signature to complete the physical examination form.

Sticking with Paper Copies

If you're going to stick with paper copies of the physical exam form, you may still need to follow some of the steps above. For instance, using a paper copy of the physical examination form does not keep you from showing the physician an electronic copy of the health history form. In that case, you will still want to have laptops/tablets in each exam room.

But if you don't want to deal with the technology at your mass physical exams, you will still want to provide the physician with a copy of the athlete's health history. And since we don't want parents to repeat the health history when they arrive, you have a decision to make. Do we: 1) print copies of each athlete's completed health history form to hand them at check-in with a blank physical exam form OR 2) ask parents to print these copies before coming to physical exams?

That choice is completely up to you. We have seen organizations have success doing both methods. The common decision makers seems to be how confident you feel in whether parents will follow-through and how much you think this will affect the flow of your athletes through the line to have their physical exams.

End of the Line

If you go with this paper process, you will also need to determine how to handle checkout procedures at the end of the line. Some of our schools choose to collect the forms from each athlete at the time of checkout. Those files can then be scanned by the school and uploaded into each athlete's DragonFly MAX profile.

Other schools decide to let parents/athletes take the completed physical examination form with them after the physicals. If this is done, schools can then request for the parent to bring a copy to the school OR they can ask parents to use DragonFly MAX to upload a copy of the physical examination form into their child's DragonFly profile. Either option allows you to convert the paper copy into an electronic file that can then be looked up online for later use.

Is that it???

Now that you've got the basics of how to handle the setup for your physical exams, it's just up to you to execute. And we'll be here every step of the way in case you have any questions. Just reach out to us through the Help Center and we'll be glad to answer any questions.

Up next, we share some simple steps to take after physicals are finished, so that everything is in order and you can start preparing for next year.

Conducting Your Mass Physical Exams