SALEM – New technology at LewisGale Medical Center is aimed at keeping your children safe.
It's called Certascan.
A nurse will scan each newborn's foot. Like fingerprints, footprints are unique to each person. The prints are stored at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. If your child ever goes missing, police can access the information quickly and they can age the footprints to help with the search.
"Parents have been thrilled. I believe they see this as an added security feature for their newborn and they absolutely love the fact that they have the rights to the footprints," said Lisa Wade, LewisGale Medical Center maternity care services director. "It's an added level of safety and security that we can provide here at LewisGale Medical Center. We pride ourselves on providing high-quality safe patient care to include our smaller population."
There is a fun factor of this technology. You can log in with a password and customize birth announcements or souvenirs.
The information is also stored in your child's medical file, along with the mother's index fingerprint and baby's photo.
The footprint scans started June 1 and are being used at LewisGale in Salem and Montgomery County.
Not using paper and ink for footprints also saves nurses about 10 minutes.