Elpas, part of Tyco Security Products business unit of Tyco has introduced a new version of its Infant Protection Bracelet, part of its Infant Protection Solution.

It  consists of a small, baby-friendly Active RFID Tag and the Elpas Charm that, when used as part of the Infant Protection Bracelet, enables wireless deterrence of infant abduction and mother-baby mismatch in maternity, obstetrics, neonatal and pediatric departments from the time of birth/admittance until discharge.

“Technology offerings for the maternity and neonatal environments must be efficient, easy-to-use and provide hospitals with the flexibility to fit the patient care and security protocols of their facility,” said David Fensterheim, vice president, product management, Elpas.

“Our new Infant Protection Bracelet expands the capabilities of our current Infant Protection Solution offerings to this market,” he added.

The Elpas Charm, as part of the Infant Protection Solution, provides real-time indoor positioning data so that medical personnel can always know the location, movement and status of the protected infant. With its nylon plastic enclosure, the Elpas Charm is easy to clean and use. The average battery life of the Elpas Charm is approximately two years.

The Charm communicates directly with an Elpas Mother Bracelet, which allows the nurse or mother to verify the Mother/Baby match with the press of a button on the mother’s Bracelet.  This provides nursing staff with a reliable and ubiquitous method for preventing unintended mismatches. The system can integrate with CCTV systems, providing visuals of all alerts, and can also be used for panic alarms, wander control, asset tracking and wireless nurse calls.

The infant RFID bracelet is small, lightweight and equipped with a tamper band that alerts when the bracelet is opened even when submerged in water. For added security, the Infant Protection Bracelet also supports instantaneous near-exit location alerting to help guard against unauthorised departmental transfers and to assist in enforcing staff and family escort policies between hospital departments.