When I was born, back in 1967, my mother wanted me to be born at my grandparents’ house, because she was afraid to go to the hospital. She said that children were stolen or changed in hospitals.
It seemed like a paranoia of small-town people, but later we learned that in the heart of Europe, in Spain, children were stolen from families without resources to give them up for adoption to other families and make a profit.
Today the Healthcare Administration and, in general, the legislation and guarantees of this country, prevent the existence of characters such as those known, who in the 60s, yes: children were stolen.
Is this possible today?
From a scientific point of view, for many years now, means have been used such as scanning the sole of the newborn’s foot, barcodes that accompany the child’s anklet, the mother’s wristband, the history of both and the umbilical clamp, as well as univocally identifiable biological samples such as blood or DNA samples that in case of doubt in the last place we can unequivocally ensure who that child is and who his or her parents are.
But we always depend on possible human error, or malicious error, which exists and is possible, so ….
We can do more, much more
Technology is not the solution, but no solution happens without technology. Today I am presenting First Foorprint and Certascan, a 100% digital solution that avoids errors in the interpretation of the images taken of the footprint, together with the image of the newborn taken at the moment of birth and the mother’s footprints, in a clinical station that allows a quick and unequivocal identification of the child and its mother.
The features of the solution are as follows:
- Accurate identification of infants improves hospital security
- Wristband security support to prevent possible baby swapping
- Accurate identification needed in abductions, natural disasters and missing and found babies
- Faster and easier to use than current ink systems: No need to clean inks or blurred images.
- Time-saving, easy-to-use software for nursing staff
- Easy to store and retrieve digital images
- Storage in the electronic medical record: no more paper
- Compliance with the latest NCMEC Child Safety Guidelines and Patient Identification Standards
- Increases satisfaction of mothers, nurses and hospital medical services
- Mothers are given an attractive souvenir with hospital branding and data taken from the scanner
- Possibility for parents to download the print and enhance the certificate with colours and borders at www.firstfootprint.com
- Nursing enjoys the ease of use and praise from parents using the new technology.
- Hospitals gain increased patient satisfaction in their risk profile by meeting stricter child safety guidelines.
- Gain a competitive advantage by being the first in your area to offer this important benefit to your patients.
- Integrates easily with any HIS
Brochure here
White Paper Footprint Validity here