July 22, 2005
RFID's Infant Protection thwarts kidnapping
In Charlotte, N.C., an abduction of a baby from Presbyterian Hospital was thwarted thanks to an RFID infant protection system.
Last week, the Hugs system sounded the alarm when an infant was removed from the hospital's seventh-floor nursery. Nurses and staff responded to the "Code Pink" alert, and security officials recovered the infant unharmed and returned him to the maternity ward. [via Wireless Week]
"VeriChip Corporation, a subsidiary of Applied Digital, a provider of security and identification technology, supplies the "Hugs" Infant Protection. Each infant wears a Hugs tag on his or her wrist or ankle that contains a tiny radio transmitter. Hospital exit points are electronically monitored to detect unauthorized removal of an infant.
Since 1983, there have been 233 infant abductions in the United States, half of which originated at healthcare facilities.
VeriChip's RFID infant protection systems are designed to combat not only infant abductions, but also accidental infant mismatchings, which is a much bigger problem. According to the Journal of Healthcare Protection Management, mismatching incidents occur roughly 20,000 times a year.
VeriChip's infant protection systems now are installed in approximately 900 U.S. hospitals.
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