Newborn babies at Xinhua Hospital will now be given
state-of-the-art electronic tags in a pilot scheme.
Designed to streamline medical records, do away with paperwork
and avoid identity errors, new babies and their mothers at Xinhua
Hospital will be given tags that have a microchip which will
contain their complete medical histories and can also tell staff
the baby's location.
If the baby is taken from the obstetrics ward without approval,
the tag will set off an automatic alarm.
The technology uses radio frequency identification, or RFID,
which uses radio waves to identify an object or person.
Doctors and nurses can put data about a mother or baby on the
electronic tags and have it transferred immediately to the
hospital's central computer.
In practice a mother-to-be who has been admitted to hospital
will be given a tag which will stay with her and be updated as she
proceeds through medical examinations, delivery and then post-natal
care. Almost as soon as the baby is born, it too receives its
tag.
Hospital officials said the scheme is still in its pilot stage
and there is no time set for the scheme to be used in other
hospitals.
"Experts from Shanghai Municipal Information Commission are
evaluating the project and will decide what to do next," said
official Shi Min.
Other local maternity hospitals said the same system has been
used overseas and the authorities should adopt it for domestic
use.
In most Chinese hospitals newborn babies have handwritten tags
placed on them for identification.
"It is impossible to keep all the relevant information on one
chip and hospitals still have to print out their records for the
authorities when needed," said Chen Daning from Shanghai Peace
Maternity and Child Health Hospital. "Moreover electronic medical
records cannot be produced as evidence in court."
She said the alarm system could be good for local hospitals
which have to guard against babies being mistakenly removed from
wards.
"To prevent any mistakes, we have our guards check for the
doctor's written approval whenever a baby leaves. Nurses also have
to tell the guards before a baby is discharged and the guards will
check the baby's ward number and bed number," she said. "The
electronic tag system could streamline our work."
(Shanghai Daily August 17, 2007)