The Saudi Ministry of Health is set to enter agreements with specialized companies to set up infant abduction and exchange-prevention systems in hospitals across the Kingdom to better protect newbornsduring that critical time period between birth and departure, local media reported.
The move was prompted by last week’s abduction of a newborn from a Medina hospital.
While the core concept of tags and alerts remains the same, total system capabilities have reached a whole new level.
The goals: to foil abduction and exchange attempts, match mothers to their babies, locate wandering patients and track high-value assets.
Real-time protection
The newest infant protection technologies work with Wi-Fi networks to provide campuswide, real-time information on an infant’s location and status, while connecting to platforms and devices that already exist within staff and patient processes. These include medical record platforms, nurse call systems and such mobile devices as smartphones.
The Saudi Centre for Accreditation of Health Facilities has added the standard “Protection of newborns in hospitals from kidnapping and replacement’ as part of the programme of the basic national requirements for patient safety “Aman”, starting this year.
