Introducing a Digital ID System for Newborns
McLaren Lapeer Region Family BirthPlace is offering mothers and families a unique way to increase the safety and security of their newborn babies. The Infant Safety System, developed by CertaScan Technologies, allows delivery staff to bypass the old method of ink and paper and instead quickly capture high resolution images of a newborn’s footprint. These scans are now an accepted way to uniquely identify each baby not only while in the hospital, but also to precisely identify a young child should an emergency situation such as abduction, missing child or natural disaster occur.
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 entirely safe for use on babies and provides outstanding footprint quality. Nurses prefer the System because it 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. And, much like finger prints, foot prints are a biometric, unique to each person, so they can be used for identification throughout a lifetime.
“Baby and family safety are our number one priority here at McLaren Lapeer Region Family BirthPlace,” said Betsy Felton Director of ER, OB and Ortho, “and I am pleased that we are able to provide another level of protection for our families”.
Each new mom receives a certificate of her newborn’s footprint ID. When she returns home, she can visit www.firstfootprint.com to customize the certificate to use as a keepsake. She can also download a digital copy of her baby’s footprint. These benefits are provided as a gift from McLaren Lapeer Region and at no cost to families.