Top 5 Best Practices for Infant Security in Hospitals

Hospitals and birthing centers hold a great responsibility in ensuring the safety and security of infants during their stay. The well-being of babies is of utmost importance, therefore hospitals have implemented various safety strategies to protect the infants in their care from harm and abduction. Measures like proper training, access control, and infant security systems are essential to ensuring the safety of these little ones.

5 Ways to Secure Infants in Healthcare Settings

Figuring out what is needed at your hospital or birthing center can be daunting, so we have compiled a list of five of the most important ways you can keep infants safe at your hospital.

#1: Training and Education

Quality training and education programs are two of the most important security tactics that you should implement at your healthcare facility. Proper training of your staff is essential to ensure all healthcare workers follow the same expectations, safety standards, and daily procedures for infant protection.

Education can help to strengthen the purpose behind policies and procedures so all your staff members understand the importance of safety strategies and are committed to implementing these methods.

#2: Infant Security Solution

It is crucial for maternity and obstetric units to have an infant protection solution in place, such as the Cuddles Infant Protection Solution. This solution utilizes a secure and soft band in conjunction with a perimeter control system to safeguard newborns in a hospital or maternity ward.

Whenever anyone tries to take a baby out of a restricted area of the hospital, the nursing staff is immediately alerted and they can act accordingly to prevent infant abduction. This system also sends alerts if the Cuddles band is tampered with or removed.

#3: Access Control System

Controlling who comes and goes at your healthcare center is vital to safety and security. Access control creates several layers of protection to keep staff, patients, and visitors safe. For example, a card swipe access control system can prevent unauthorized personnel from entering secure areas of a hospital. You can use this system in parking lots, on outer doors, and for more secure hospital wings.

Access control can keep infants safe. Breaches in security can be documented through this system as well. A record is kept of who entered which access points and when, helping pinpoint what caused a security breach should one occur.

#4: Policies and Procedures

Of course no security measures will be successful without reliable and consistent policies and procedures that all staff must adhere to. Access control measures won’t be effective if everyone is leaving gates open or doors unlocked or allowing unauthorized personnel to enter the building through prohibited entry points.

You must have policies and procedures in place that all staff agree to uphold. There should be clear methods for following safety and security protocols, and there should be consequences for failure to maintain these standards. Everyone should be properly trained on these procedures and should not be allowed to work unless they have a firm grasp of the best practices at your facility for protecting infants.

#5: Digital Footprinting

Finally, another way to keep newborns safe at hospitals is through the process of digital footprinting. Digital footprint scans can document infants at a hospital from birth so they can be easily identified should an emergency occur. These footprint scans are more effective than ink and paper footprinting methods hospitals have used in the past.

Digital scans last forever, can be shared quickly and easily with law enforcement, and are better able to capture an infant’s unique footprint.

What Else Can Be Done to Protect Infants in Hospitals?

It is crucial to take all necessary precautions to ensure the safety of infants. These measures should not be taken lightly or just for the sake of demonstrating that an effort has been made. For example, simply installing a security system is not enough.

It is important to select a robust security system that can be relied upon to perform its functions effectively. Opt for security products that have a proven track record of producing reliable results and choose manufacturing companies with excellent reputations.

Need to Secure Infants at a Hospital or Birthing Center? Call Accutech Healthcare Security Solutions

We take pride in offering proven healthcare security solution products - such as the CertaScan baby footprint scanning, Cuddles infant protection solution, and Accutech Access for robust access control. You can trust us to provide you with practical solutions that deliver results. Contact us today, and let us help you take your healthcare security to the next level.