Infant Security System for Hospitals

The TotTag needs to be removed when the baby is bathed; the Umbilical and PPT-2 tags do not. A ‘suspend’ feature from the GUI is used to avoid a tamper alarm whilst the tag has been removed.

The infant tags emit short pulses of low power RF every 12 seconds. The amount of radiation is required to be kept below a safe level and is controlled by FCC and Industry Canada regulations. The energy transmitted is orders of magnitude lower than that emitted by cellular phones. Exciters operate in the 125kHz range which has no impact on human tissue. These levels are also controlled by FCC/Industry Canada regulations.

Parents will be able to move around the secure area without triggering alarms. They should however avoid loitering near exit doors. If the tag is within a few feet of an exit and someone opens the door, a ‘nuisance alarm’ will be generated.

The TotGuard system is designed such that door controls and alarms are managed directly at the door (by the Tag Reader Controller) which means that even if the server or network is down doors will lock and local strobe and annunciators will trigger based on tag location to the door and door state.

Two use cases are served by an infant security system. The first is to guard against infant abductions. Although these incidents are extremely rare, if they do occur, they are traumatic to the parent(s) and can have significant liability implications on the healthcare facility. The second use case is mother-baby matching which helps avoid having a baby mismatch which could result in the baby receiving breast milk from the wrong mother or worse, leaving the hospital with the wrong mother.

Interface offers three infant tag options, two of which are tamper detecting. The TotTag (TT-1) uses a light and temperature sensor to detect when the tag is removed from the infant, and the PPT-2 tag has a cut-band which can be sensed if it is cut. If the tag detects a tamper event, then staff members will be notified. The umbilical tag (UT-1) does not have built-in tamper detection; however, people are reluctant to interfere with the umbilical cord for fear of causing harm to the baby.

Two mechanisms are used for location calculation. The tag attached to the infant periodically sends a ‘beacon’ signal which is detected by readers and the location of the tag is determined by trilateration based on the relative signal strength received by the readers. Secondly, tag exciters placed at exit points from each floor are used to determine floor positioning and rapidly generate alarms if the tag attempts to exit the secure area.

The tags will broadcast a signal periodically (typically every 12 seconds) to the system. There is a configuration setting which can be used to generate a ‘tag missing’ alarm in the event that the tag has not been heard from in a configured time interval (e.g. 2 minutes). To use this setting requires a suitable level of coverage and is not always used by customers. GuardRFID and channel partners can advise on the cost/value trade-off of using this feature.