University of Iowa Health Care has recently begun expanding CertaScan as part of its ongoing investment in innovative security measures and advanced technology.
CertaScan comes in the form of a scanner that allows for the digital footprinting of newborns. It can merge mother’s fingerprints with their baby’s footprints and integrate this information into the electronic medical record.
The technology is also used to provide accurate identification in the case of baby switches, abductions, and twins. In addition, it provides a more precise, faster, and cleaner process than ink or traditional methods.
As hospitals and health care systems worldwide switch from paper to online methods, CertaScan becomes significant as it moves away from ink and paper to a digital format, which is then integrated into the electronic health record.
UIHC is one of those hospitals that have begun using CertaScan, which began more than a year ago at the university campus.
Now, the downtown medical campus will adopt the new technology as well.
Jennifer Miller, chief administrative officer for UIHC Medical Center Downtown, said CertaScan is quickly becoming the new standard of care for newborn identification.
“Moving away from anything paper and consolidating an individual’s health records, including the footprint, is really just in line with where healthcare is going,” Miller said.
In addition, Miller said CertaScan integrates with the existing electronic medical record system that UIHC uses and will also provide an additional layer of security for patients.
“This also aligns with the way that we are capturing this identification of newborns with the [Medical Center Downtown] or the university campuses practice as well,” Miller said. “No matter where you deliver a baby, you will have the same level of security and identification attached to you as a mother and your baby attached to the medical health record.”
Ultimately, Miller highlighted how CertaScan fits into UIHC’s broader strategy and vision for delivering high-quality, technology-driven health care experiences for patients and their families.
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“We are always seeking to find new and innovative ways to enhance security, to have a patient-centered experience, and this tool really allows both babies and their parents to have more of a patient-centeredness, more of a technology-driven experience than one where we are reliant more so on a paper process,” Miller said.
Shayla Malone, nurse manager of the Maternal Child Department at the UIHC Medical Center Downtown, said while fingerprinting and footprinting newborns is not new, the move to a digital format integrated into the electronic health record is what makes CertaScan unique.
According to Malone, an additional perk of CertaScan allows parents to easily order items such as medical identification or coffee cups with their baby’s digital footprint, which goes beyond the security benefits.
“Ultimately, safety and security is our top priority in the Maternal Child Department, but another nice little perk to this system is it’s more and more common to take that little footprint and take it to your tattoo artist to get your infants’ foot tattooed,” Malone said.
In addition, Malone stated this will ensure a consistent level of security across the different UIHC locations.
CEO of CertaScan Technologies David Yarnell said the inspiration to start the company began around 10 years ago to address issues with traditional ink-based footprinting.
According to Yarnell, the main benefits of CertaScan include precise identification for safety purposes, ease of use for hospitals, and enhanced patient satisfaction as parents can customize and share the digital footprint.
The company also collaborates with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses to ensure the technology correlates with guidelines.
As the technology continues to advance, Yarnell hopes to expand CertiScan to additional hospitals in Iowa beyond just the UIHC locations.
“We’re bringing back the reason to footprint newborns, which is for precise identification, and we’ve expanded significantly the different keepsakes that we provide to parents,” Yarnell said.