LMH Installs Cutting Edge Newborn Safety System
Licking Memorial Hospital (LMH) recently installed a new and innovative Infant Safety System developed by CertaScan Technologies (www.certascantek.com), becoming the first hospital in Ohio to provide this pioneering service to parents and the Licking County community. The proprietary system allows the Hospital to capture high resolution newborn footprints which can be used for precise forensic identification in situations such as abduction, missing individual or natural disaster.
The Newborn Safety System – which uses LiveScan Technology – has garnered 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. CertaScan is HIPAA compliant and captured data and images are encrypted to meet the Federal Information Process Standard. The digital identification system for newborns provides an extra layer of infant security and safety with technology that allows for almost instantaneous registration of footprints. Footprints from birth are a recognized and viable way to uniquely identify each baby. The resolution of the CertaScan footprint meets the FBI standard for fingerprint ID. CertaScan also provides hospitals and law enforcement officers with 24/7 access to footprint forensic specialists to confirm identities.
“We continually strive to provide exceptional care for our patients and are proud of the high- quality infant safety measures that CertaScan offers,” said Rob Montagnese, Licking Memorial Health Systems President & CEO. “The safety and security of our patients, especially our smallest ones, is a top priority.”
CertaScan is entirely safe for use on infants and provides outstanding footprint quality, detecting the ridges in each infant’s footprints. The system is inkless and decreases staff time requirements by over 70 percent. The digital footprints, as well as a security photo and the mother’s fingerprints, are stored efficiently in the newborn’s electronic medical record. Similar to fingerprints, footprints are a unique biometric that can be used for identification throughout a lifetime.