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Protecting the Youngest Hospital Patients

October 12, 2016 08:55 AM
 
baby
Protecting the little ones in hospitals.
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It is any new parent's worst nightmare: Your precious newborn is snatched from the hospital or switched with another infant by mistake. Fortunately, maternity and pediatric ward abductions and switches are rare, but not impossible. Human error happens, and sometimes, no matter how hard hospitals try to prevent it, baby snatchings occur. Engineered Security Systems has been on the cutting edge for more than 20 years in preventing such family horrors.

1.    Safety Checks

Many maternity and pediatric wards employ standard precautions, including identification-band system for newborns, pediatric patients and their parents, and ID badges for all maternity staff members. Today, however, some maternity wards are partnering with ESS in using highly technical devices to further tighten security. An estimated 10 percent of U.S. hospitals now place a microscopic radio transmitter on every infant, mounted in their bracelet or an umbilical-cord tag. This device triggers an alarm if the baby is removed from the maternity ward by unauthorized personnel or if the bracelet is cut.

2.    The Future is Now

Many hospitals around the country embed bracelets with identically coded microchips to give to newborn, mother and father. Before any baby goes home, a nurse waves a portable reader over each family member's bracelet. If they don't match, an alarm sounds; if they do, a lullaby plays, and the family goes home.

3.    Stopping Infant Abductions

If an unauthorized person attempts to leave the maternity ward with the baby, the system will automatically send out an alarm, locking doors and securing nearby elevators.

To further protect against abduction attempts, it’s crucial to implement an infant security system that integrates the baby’s tags with a tamper detection system. Tamper sensors can send alarms whenever the tag is not touching the baby’s skin. Not only will this act as a preemptive strike against any threatening situation, but it allows the hospital to enact an immediate response to an abduction attempt. It keeps newborns safe and provides families with peace of mind that their baby is always protected. It also saves hospitals from the economic liability and destruction of credibility that would result from such an occurrence, however rare.

What could be more important than making the patients in your hospital’s maternity and pediatric wards feel as secure as possible? Please contact Engineered Security Systems’ President, David George, at dgeorge@engineeredsecurity.comor 800-742-1263 for more information on how we can best protect your newborns and pediatric patients.

 

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1 Indian Lane East
Towaco NJ 07082

TEL. 800.742.1263

FAX. 973.257.0550

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