MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
T It’s the little things that count
The University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust has invested in a security system to keep all of its new born babies safe and sound, reports Richard Mackillican
he main concern of parents everywhere is the safety of their children which
begins the moment they are born. Many hospitals now employ security staff to watch over newborns to ensure that only the right mother and father have access to their child.
Taking this a step further, staff in the maternity ward at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester have begun to fit new born babies with small RFID tags, which allow staff to monitor the babies and their location.
“The security of our babies is extremely important to everyone at the trust,” says Helen Thompson, head of midwifery at the trust.
“At the moment the hospital is undergoing a major refurbishment programme, which has meant that the postnatal ward has temporally decanted into a new ward whilst the work takes place.
“This leads us to look for a new security system for the newborns to replace our old one, which was functional but in need of an update.
“We now have the new system up and running whilst we are in the decant ward and it will follow us back to our new ward
Jul/Aug 10
once the refurbishment has been completed.”
The trust was well supported by the company which installed the system and faced very few problems in the implementation of the system.
“Once we had chosen a system the suppliers came on site for the day and helped us to deal with any issues which we were facing, which we found very helpful. The system is now fully operational and we are very pleased with it.”
The system is effective from the moment the baby reaches the post natal ward where the child is fitted with a small RFID tag.
“As soon as the tag is fitted to the child it becomes effective with the system using a process called auto-enrolment. There are even options to have the system right from the delivery room and these are options which the trust is looking into for the future, once the refurbishment in finished.
“The tags don’t require any
manual testing and work from the moment they are attached to the child and continually monitor the child, checking their heart beat every few seconds and emitting a signal if anything is wrong.”
Staff then have a monitor which shows them the position of all of the babies and gives them live updates of how those babies are doing.
“The monitor gives you a bird’s eye view of the ward showing you where every single baby is. If something triggers the alarm, all of the doors on the ward will go into lock down, stopping someone who does not have the right clearance from taking one of the babies. The system can also lock down any lifts within the building as well.
“Another option which we are considering is a system which matches the infant to the mother, meaning that an alarm will go off if mum and baby are not matched correctly”
Apart from providing peace of mind which the system allows new parents, the system also provides the trust with greater levels of security.
“We now have the security of knowing that our babies are safe and that if a baby was removed, or was being put in any danger, then the alarm would go off straight away and we would be able to tell exactly where there was a problem.
“The system also alerts us if the tag is not secure, again reducing the risk to the babies, because the tags cannot be tampered with.
“Obviously the baby can leave the unit but only after a special password has been entered by staff into the system to temporarily disable it. This gives staff a great amount of control over the babies’ movements.
“The system is very reliable and simply to operate, which means that training new staff is very straightforward.”
nhe 29 Helen Thompson
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