Ohio High School Athletic Association
4080 Roselea Place, Columbus, Ohio 43214
TO: High School Athletic Administrators
FROM: Daniel B. Ross, Commissioner
DATE: May 9, 2014
We are pleased to announce that several of you have taken the initiative to begin leveraging PrivIT e-PPE (Electronic Pre-participation Physical Evaluation). However, we have been receiving several recurring questions regarding the implementation for PrivIT e-PPE, and we would like to proactively address some of these questions.
The PrivIT e-PPE solution is something we have been interested in for over a decade. Our Joint Advisory Committee on Sports Medicine, after reviewing this most recent version over the last six months, unanimously recommended to the OHSAA that they adopt the PrivIT system as the best practice solution for protecting our students prior to sport participation, i.e. via the clearance to participate.
We are committed to doing everything we can to promote the safety of student-athletes. One way we know we can do better is to eliminate the risk of a ‘rubber stamp’ during the PPE process. Medical research states 75% of sport related injuries can be reduced with PPE, and that the medical history portion is the most valuable section. Using PrivIT e-PPE will provide physicians and athletic trainers with a more detailed report prior to physicals and sport participation, which will help to identify health risk areas for each student. By improving the effectiveness of the screening process, we will reduce the risk of injury. The following are some FAQ’s that have been developed to assist you.
1. Briefly describe the PrivIT e-PPE and its benefits.
The PrivIT e-PPE is an online form for students to complete with their parents or guardians. Use of the online form will replace the form that the OHSAA provided in the past, which required students and parents/guardians to fill it out manually with a pencil or pen. After the electronic form is completed, it must be printed out and provided to the examining physician just as the old form was.
The main benefit of using an online form versus the paper form is that information will be more legible for the examining physician to read and possibly detect any health risk areas. In addition, the online form can be stored, meaning students and their parents/guardians will only have to make updates when completing the e-PPE in subsequent years and schools can choose to maintain the forms electronically themselves.
Additionally, it should be clear that the medical examiner will not be involved in filling out or maintaining the e-PPE. His/her only role will be to obtain the printed copy, review it to help detect any health risks and sign it to either clear the student for participation, deny the student for participation or make a recommendation.
2. Is the e-PPE required/mandated for the 2014-15 school year, or is this a trial year?
For this next school year, beginning with the release of PrivIT e-PPE on May 1, we are highly recommending the use of the new digital version, and starting with the 2015-2016 school year, we will be phasing out the paper form and PrivIT e-PPE will become our standard PPE. Will paper forms ever be completely phased out? Perhaps not, but we will be using as our standard form the digital format as developed by PrivIT.
3. How should we address parents/families who do not have access to a computer or printer?
You have some time to develop a suitable process to handle this situation. However, it is important to remember all individuals in communities throughout Ohio have computer access via the many public libraries in our communities. Schools also have the ability to make computer labs open to parents to complete their electronic PPE forms. We don't see this as a huge stumbling block, and it certainly is not a reason to stop moving forward with best practices to protect students. In addition, PrivIT e-PPE is accessible on mobile devices with Internet capabilities.
4. How does the PrivIT e-PPE impact the physical exam process?
Medical experts agree, one of the most critical aspects of the PPE is the history portion. The PrivIT e-PPE solution will allow parents to complete a thorough medical history based on nationally endorsed standards. PrivIT e-PPE is flexible enough to support any type of physical exam process {Primary Care Physician, Third Party (Clinic/Health Center), Organizational Mass Physical}. Regardless of where a student has his or her physical done, the student will bring the printed PrivIT e-PPE personal health history summary that is legible and highlights health risk areas related to the student-athlete, to the examining physician, thus providing the physician an opportunity to perform a more focused exam. Reading the paper forms has been a huge challenge for our physicians.
5. Is PrivIT e-PPE available to middle school students?
We are starting PrivIT e-PPE with the high schools and plan to include the middle schools in the near future. We have had several middle schools request to be set up for use for their 7th and 8th grade athletes, and PrivIT has worked closely with the ADs from these middle schools to make the transition.
6. After the parents print off the completed PPE forms, and the physician signs the appropriate forms, how do the forms get back into the student’s file?
The ability to upload forms to a student’s PrivIT e-PPE profile is not mandatory, however it is a benefit that helps reduce paper storage, makes the form readily accessible to authorized system users when needed, and ensures schools are able to satisfy the legal requirement to keep certain completed forms accessible indefinitely. Depending on the school’s process, the school can upload the forms or schools can request parents upload the forms. That is a choice for the school. If you would like to take advantage of this benefit, but aren’t sure how best to do so, please contact PrivIT support for guidance from their experience working with other schools.
7. A member of our staff received an email about a new account created for them, providing a username and password for the system…who would have set that up?
All of the ADs received an email containing their high school’s account information. Once the AD has logged into PrivIT e-PPE, that administrator will add additional authorized personnel to the high school’s account. The system will automatically send an email with login credentials to the newly added authorized person or persons. For further assistance, please visit: support.priv-it.com.
We are committed to supporting our member schools through this transition, and PrivIT is dedicated to helping you develop the best process to support your high school’s needs. PrivIT has been a great partner throughout this process, and they have proven to be available and helpful to everyone who has reached out to them.