Rutland Regional Medical Center installed a state-of-the-art piece of technology to help protect newborns.

Rutland Regional Medical Center installed a state-of-the-art piece of technology to help protect newborns.

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Rutland Regional Medical Center installed a state-of-the-art piece of technology to help protect newborns.

Rutland Regional Medical Center, RRMC, unveiled a new high-tech piece of medical equipment this week. It’s geared towards keeping newborns safe.

“What this does is it takes a digital imprint of baby’s footprints, a digital imprint of mom’s fingerprint, and a digital photo of baby’s face,” said Leah Romine, the clinical director of the Women and Children Unit and Birthing Center at RRMC.

The scans are a means of identification for law enforcement agencies in case of an emergency.

“In the event mom and baby ever get separated, through natural disaster, abduction, we can easily access those digital images,” Romine said.

Parents and the hospital have login information to a national database. Brain Tarmy, an LNA at the hospital, has been using the device. He demonstrated how easy it was to input the information in an interview Tuesday.

“We have the scanner here; they have the arm bands,” he said, showing the new technology. “We scan the arm bands and identify the baby by the number, which matches up to the moms.”

Nurses then scan the baby’s feet by using a box on the cart. The same box is used for the mothers’ fingerprints. And lastly a picture is taken of the newborn.

It also has an additional benefit; the web portal allows parents to use the images for making t-shirts, mugs or even tattoos.

The scans are free and optional, but Rajesh Harchind, a recent father, recommends it.

“It’s a quick process. I don’t think it was a hard process,” he said. “I think every parent should do it. It took literally five minutes.”

Parents can rest easy knowing that this information is there to help in an emergency.

“It does give us peace of mind; if something happens that way, at least it’s on a database and it’s easy to track your children,” Harchind said while holding his newborn.

The scanner is made by a company called Certascan Technologies. They’re the only one who makes the device. It comes recommended by the National Center for Missing And Exploited Children and RRMC is the only hospital in Vermont that has one.

“Previously, we’ve been giving parents an ink and paper footprint of baby, and that’s strictly just a keepsake,” Romine said. If the footprints were needed in an emergency it would not be of any use to law enforcement, unlike the new digital ones.

The medical center told NBC5 that it has other security measures in place. This is just another one they feel is important to provide.

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