McLaren Greater Lansing is among the first to receive the new gold standard for identifying newborn patients. The new infant safety system developed by CertaScan Technologies allows the hospital to capture high resolution, digital newborn footprints which can be used for precise identification in situations like an abduction, lost baby, or natural disaster.
“The safety of our patients, especially our youngest patients, is the number one priority for us,” Heather Adams, M.D., pediatric hospitalist said. “This new technology allows us to offer the safest method to identify the mother’s new baby.
The Newborn Safety System — which uses LiveScan Technology — has garnered the attention and praise from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and has been included as a recommendation for hospitals in its most recent Infant Security Guidelines.
The system is safe for use on babies and provides outstanding footprint quality. The new system is easy to use, seamless to adopt, and replaces the time consuming and messy ink and paper method. The digital foot prints and security photo can be stored efficiently in the newborn’s electronic medical record. Much like fingerprints, foot prints are a biometric, unique to each baby, so they can be used for identification throughout a lifetime.
“Every new mom will still receive a printed keepsake of their baby’s footprints,” Dr. Adams said. “However, parents will now have an opportunity to get another copy later if they want it, and can even customize the certificate. Most importantly, though, is that this unique biometric now has the ability to protect our children.”
Each new mom receives a certificate of her newborn’s footprint during her stay at McLaren Greater Lansing. When she returns home, she can visit www.firstfootprint.com and personalize the certificate with colors, different fonts and borders. She can also download a digital copy of her baby’s footprint.
To learn more about McLaren Greater Lansing’s Birthing Center visit http://www.mclaren.org/lansing/birth-center-services.aspx or call (517) 975-7300.
SOURCE: PRESS RELEASE
