At the request of many athletic administrators and ATCs, the CIAC has created its own in-house system for the tracking of concussions received by student-athletes in practices and games. Reports may be submitted either via the Online Eligibility Center (by clicking on the “View/Submit Athletic Concussion Reports” button on the “General” tab) or via the concussioncentral.ciacsports.com website (by clicking on the similar button at the bottom of the homepage).
Submission via the Concussion Central site requires a school injury surveillance access code, which can be created by athletic directors for their trainers or doctors under the “Manage Access Codes” link on the Eligibility Center’s Admin Actions tab.
Submission of a report will require less than five minutes as long as you have the necessary information. All answers are selected from pulldown menus so no typing is required. If you do not have all the information necessary to submit a final report, or if you wish to start a report before an athlete has been fully released, there is an option to save a draft which you can return to and edit or finalize at any point.
Reports should be submitted for concussions received by your student-athletes in practices or games. Submission does not need to be done on a daily or weekly basis (although it can be if you choose to). At minimum submissions should be done on a seasonal basis (at the end of the fall, winter and spring seasons). Submission is required for all levels of CIAC-sponsored sports, however you may submit info for concussions sustained in non-CIAC sports or activities (i.e. cheerleading) as long as you enter a roster for the sport or activity under the non-CIAC sports section of the Eligibility Center.
Following is a screenshot of the submission screen, and comments on what is needed under each of the pulldowns.
– Athlete (Sport): The name and sport of the athlete from the menu which lists alphabetically all the athletes on all of your eligibility lists
– Level: Varsity, JV, Freshman, etc.
– Position: For football, select lineman, defensive back or other. For sports which have goalies (soccer, lacrosse, ice hockey, field hockey) choices are goalie or other. Not required for other sports.
– Previous Concussion History: Number of previous concussions suffered by this athlete, not including the one currently being entered.
– Date of Injury
– Sustained In: Practice or game
– How Occurred: Type of contact – Head-to-head, head-to-ground, object-to-head, body blow
– Dates Returned to School: The dates the athlete was allowed to return to classes, both part-time and full-time. If they were not limited to part-time initially, the same date should be entered on both menus.
– Date Cleared to Begin RTP Protocol
– Date Fully Cleared to Return
– Full Release Date
– RTP Overseen/Documented By: Select from ATC, PA, MD, APRN or Other. Other answer requires an explanation of who it is.
– Report Submitted By: Select from AD, ATC or Other. Other answer requires an explanation of who it is.
We believe this system will require less time and effort to submit the essential data needed for our sports medicine professionals to analyze trends and make recommendations on best practices. Your assistance is needed and much appreciated.
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