Hospitals rely on tags, staff, parents to prevent mix-up
of babies
SINGAPORE: Hospitals in Singapore have in place
robust procedures to ensure that parents do not go home with the
wrong baby.
But they also rely on staff and parents to prevent
mistakes.
Channel NewsAsia checked with five hospitals on
their systems, a day after KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH)
revealed its mix-up over two babies who were discharged to the
wrong sets of parents on Sunday.
All babies are tagged and are carefully checked to ensure that they
are matched with their mothers.
Still, the unexpected had happened at KKH.
The baby who left the hospital first had two correct tags with his
mother's name.
The second baby was wearing mismatched tags.
One tag had the name of his mother, while the other carried the
name of the mother of the first baby.
This incident has left many wondering why the checks were not
thorough enough.
Other maternity hospitals that Channel NewsAsia checked with also
rely on tagging.
Each baby is given two tags minutes after birth and when it is time
to leave the hospital, staff would check both tags to confirm their
identities.
Mount Elizabeth Hospital takes extra simple steps, such as getting
the mothers to read out the babies' tags.
It also uses Radio-frequency identification to match baby and
mother.
Mount Elizabeth Hospital's chief executive officer, Dr Kelvin Loh,
said: "Only if the baby goes off the correct mother, the tag will
give off a pleasant chime.
"If the baby goes to the wrong mother, it will actually sound off
an alarm so that will be an additional mechanism that will help to
match the baby to the right mother."
At least one other hospital is looking at using new technology to
ensure that newborn babies are paired with the right mothers.
KKH is still investigating the mix-up and is working with the
health ministry to ensure this will be the only and last mix-up
incident.
- CNA/lp
