KGH Installs State-of-the-Art Infant/Child Monitoring System
April 3rd, 2007
One hundred and sixteen infants were abducted from health care facilities between 1983 and 2004, according to information released in a 2005 joint study by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. This study also reports that 99 (or 85 percent) of those abductions were from within an area of the facility including the mother’s room, nursery and pediatrics unit. To offer parents and their children additional protection against such abductions, Kennewick General recently installed the Safe Place® Infant/Child Monitoring Solution. KGH contracted with RFTechnologies, Inc. – the leading provider of comprehensive and integrated radio frequency identification (RFID) monitoring systems – for a comprehensive needs analysis and installation of the system in its Family Birthing Center, Special Care Nursery and Pediatric Unit. The new system continually monitors each child’s location, helping to prevent abductions and maintain the correct match between mother/guardian and child.
Rhonda Simmons recently gave birth to a beautiful baby boy in Kennewick General Hospital’s Family Birthing Center. “The staff was wonderful. They fitted us with the bands and explained the security system to my husband and I. Honestly, we didn’t give it much thought after that,” she recalled. “Then we brought our baby home to newspaper and TV news stories about a newborn taken directly out of the mother’s room in a Texas hospital. We are so thankful that KGH is committed to doing whatever it takes to make sure all infants and children under their care are safe and secure.” The Safe Place system features an Alarming Band that, if tampered with, transmits a signal to receivers placed throughout the facility and sounds an alarm. Hospital doors automatically lock down, staff is immediately alerted and able to report to the area. This system allows for continuous monitoring of each child’s movement throughout the protected area. Moreover, this technology has been engineered to alert the monitoring system about any attempt to tamper with the system by an unauthorized user. In the birth center, mother and child are banded with coordinating tags, ensuring each infant is given to its correct mother before leaving the facility. According to Kathy Rodriguez, Director of Pediatric Services at KGH, “Families have expressed how grateful they are for the extra measures we’ve taken to provide even more safety and security for their little ones. It gives them peace of mind knowing that security is a priority for all staff, so they can concentrate on recuperating and adjusting to the new addition and changes that await them.”
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