Health Services

Magnus Parent Support: service@magnushealthportal.com
877-461-6831: Monday-Thursday 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. and Friday 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. (EST)    

Brewster Academy is pleased to partner with Magnus electronic medical records to collect our student health information for each school year. Magnus is a secure and easy to use website to submit and store health information online.

In early June, all enrolled families will receive an email with login instructions for your child’s/children’s Magnus account. Follow the link provided, enter your logon information, and fill out and submit all of the requested information by July 15. All information should be returned to Magnus through mail, fax, or by uploading them to the secure server at Magnus. Detailed instructions will be available upon login to Magnus. In preparation, please schedule your student for a yearly physical to be completed this summer.

Please do not return any information to Brewster Academy.

If you do not receive the Magnus email, please check your junk or spam email box and, if it’s not there, contact the Health Center at Brewster as soon as possible: nurse@brewsteracademy.org

In future years while your student is enrolled at Brewster, you will simply return to Magnus and update any new information. This is an efficient tool that will increase security in collecting and maintaining this information, as well as provide secure access to your child’s/children’s information in the event of an emergency.

The Brewster Academy Counseling Services are located in the bottom floor of the academic building and staffed by licensed Behavioral Health professionals. The Director of Counseling (Susan Palmer-Ansorg PhD.) is a licensed Psychologist, and our school based Counselor (Joe Brown, MS) is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor. Together they provide a number of services free of charge to students including short-term counseling, group counseling, psycho-educational programming, and consultation to faculty when emotional issues are affecting school performance. Additionally, they offer crisis assessment and intervention 24/7 when school is in session.

Students are referred to the office in a number of ways. Individual students can reach out by sending an email to counseling@brewsteracademy.org, they may be referred through the health center or other faculty who have concerns, or they can simply drop in and ask to set up a time to talk.

Students who are looking for weekly therapy throughout the school year are usually referred to practitioners in the community and parents are responsible for the cost. Through their relationships with providers in the local community they can assist parents in connecting with a therapist in the community.  

We partner with Care Pharmacy in Wolfeboro Falls, NH. Being only one-half mile from the school, CARE pharmacy can quickly serve the medication needs of our students. This includes all prescription and over-the-counter medications taken on both a daily and as-needed basis.

Participation in this program is required for all families with boarding students needing to take medications at Brewster. All medication will be individually packaged and sealed in daily dose packs.  With an average of 80 students on daily meds, this packaging makes medication administration as efficient and safe as possible. 

Care Pharmacy accepts most insurance plans. They will verify your insurance and bill your insurance company for prescription drugs. You will be responsible for the $12 a month packaging fee, co-payments/deductibles, and the cost of drugs not covered by your insurance plan. It is important that you notify Care Pharmacy of any changes to your insurance or credit card. Medications not covered by insurance are charged to your credit card by the pharmacy.   

Please contact them at 603-515-1213 to set up or update your account. For security reasons, we cannot accept credit card information at the health center; therefore, you will have to contact Care Pharmacy directly. Your doctor can escribe the prescriptions to Care Pharmacy, or if a hard copy of the prescription is required you can have your doctor mail it directly to:

Care Pharmacy
PO BOX 1012 
Wolfeboro Falls, NH 03896 

A flu shot clinic is held on campus every fall for students, faculty, and staff.

Brewster’s planning and response to the spread of influenza will continue to be guided by recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (NHDHHS) as well as with consultation from the Academy’s physicians.

The following information is provided here to guide the Brewster community during the school year. As information and updates on the influenza virus become available, we will update this page as necessary.

Daily Prevention Strategies
 
Note: As recommended by the CDC and the NHDHHS, we will isolate students with a fever and/or send them home. It is important to note, however, that this does not mean that these students have the flu.

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it. Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. Germs spread this way.

• Students should not share water bottles, drinks, utensils, etc. with others.

• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

• If you are sick with flu-like illness (including a fever of 100.4 degrees F or higher, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills, and extreme tiredness), the CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.) Keep away from others as much as possible. This is to keep from making others sick.

• While sick, limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

Illness Guidelines

Boarding Students
If students exhibit influenza-like symptoms, including fever of 100.4 degrees F or higher, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills, and extreme tiredness, they should report to the Health Center immediately. If a student’s home is within a day’s drive from campus, parents will be asked to pick up students and keep them home until they have been 24 hours without a fever (without the use of fever-reducing medications) and regardless of whether or not they are using antiviral drugs. For students who live too far to go home, they will be housed in either the health center or their dorm (with steps taken to isolate the student as much as possible within the dorm setting).

Day Students
If students exhibit influenza-like symptoms, including fever of 100.4 degrees F or higher, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills, and extreme tiredness, they should stay home. Students should not return to campus until they have been 24 hours without a fever (without the use of fever-reducing medications) and regardless of whether or not they are using antiviral drugs. If students develop these symptoms while on campus, they will be sent home.

Faculty and Staff
Both residential and non-residential faculty and staff should follow these student guidelines.

Seasonal Influenza Vaccination
According to the CDC, the best way to prevent the flu is by getting a flu vaccination each year. The seasonal flu vaccine protects against the three seasonal viruses that research suggests will be most common. Each fall, Brewster holds a  seasonal flu vaccination  clinic on campus. All students are required* to have a seasonal flu vaccination. Flu Vaccine Permission Forms are due July 15. Parents may arrange to have the vaccine given by their family physician and must provide documentation that it was given.
 
*In the event of an on-campus outbreak of the seasonal flu, students who have not been vaccinated against the seasonal flu, will be required to leave campus.

School Closing
In the event of a widespread campus outbreak of influenza, the Academy will take the above precautionary measures, continue to monitor the situation closely here and abroad, and act in accordance with regional, state, and national guidelines.

Although the CDC does not recommend closing schools impacted by the influenza virus, should the virus cause severe and widespread illness within the Brewster community, forcing the school to suspend classes or close, parents will be notified immediately. All decisions about school closing will be made upon the recommendation, advice, and counsel of the CDC and state and local agencies.

Efforts will be made to ensure that students do not fall behind in their work. Faculty will contact students via e-mail regarding assignments and students may be directed to the Brewster Portal to pick up or turn in work. Parents and students can communicate with the teachers via e-mail or phone.

Informative Websites
The following websites are informative resources regarding the influenza virus:

New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

World Health Organization