Health Information for Youth Programs at Aquariums, Museums, and Zoos

A practical guide to making forms complete, secure, and useful

This guide is for teams running camps, overnights, and field trips at aquariums, museums, and zoos. The goal: make health information complete before arrival, keep it in one secure place, and give staff only what they need—without changing how you sell tickets or take registrations. The model is simple: Collect → Control → Confirm.

1) The model: Collect → Control → Confirm

Collect only what’s essential—and help families finish

Start with the minimum a staff member needs to run a safe program:

  • Medications and dosage
  • Allergies and action plans
  • Emergency contacts and authorized pick-ups
  • Relevant conditions or accommodations
  • Immunizations, if your policy requires them

Make key fields required. Use checkboxes and short lists where possible. Set a reminder cadence that starts at registration and follows up 7 days, 72 hours, and 24 hours before day one.

Control where PHI lives and who can see it

Store health information in one secure system, not in email or shared drives. Map roles first, then set access:

  • Medical/first-aid staff: full health profiles and medication logs
  • Education leaders: need-to-know flags and accommodations
  • Front desk: check-in status and pick-ups
  • Counselors: day-of essentials only

Turn on audit trails and retention rules that match your policy.

If your current tools can’t enforce role-based permissions and auditing, use a dedicated health system (e.g., CampDoc) to handle PHI while registration stays where it is.

Confirm readiness before doors open

Give staff a clear, pre-arrival view of who’s ready and what’s missing. Anything done at the last minute should be confirmation, not collection.

2) How this fits with your current systems

Keep your registration platform doing what it does best: attendance and payments. Layer a health system alongside it:

  • Families register and pay as usual.
  • Rosters flow to the health system.
  • Families complete medical forms there.
  • Staff see the right information for their role.
  • Check-in runs from a single readiness view.

This approach works whether you use Tessitura, Altru, Gateway, Galaxy, or a similar platform.

3) Quick diagnostic for directors and program leads

  • Are health forms complete before day one?
  • Is PHI stored in a single, secure system?
  • Do staff have role-based access to only what they need?
  • Is your team confirming—not collecting—on program day?
  • Are medication and incident records easy to retrieve during a review?

If you can’t check every box, start with Collect → Control → Confirm.

Where CampDoc fits (when you’re ready)

CampDoc is a purpose-built health layer for youth programs at aquariums, museums, and zoos. It adds to your process without interrupting your registration or ticketing systems.

  • Seamless with Tessitura for camps and programs: rosters and participant details sync automatically so families don’t re-enter data.
  • Works alongside other platforms (e.g., Altru, Gateway, Galaxy) as the health record of truth—supplemental, not disruptive.
  • Role-based access for medical/first-aid, education leads, front desk, and counselors.
  • Compliance: HIPAA, FERPA, and SOC 2 Type II compliant practices for handling sensitive information
  • Readiness views so staff can confirm details ahead of time and move the line on arrival.

Turn the model into your playbook.
Share your current registration flow and roster fields. In a 30-minute working session we’ll map Collect → Control → Confirm onto your programs, highlight the exact handoffs, and send you a one-page diagram + checklist your team can use right away—no system changes required.

Contact Our Sales Team to Get Started: