Westchester
Let's Get Social!


Westchester Hospital Installs First Newborn Safety Digital Scanning System in NY State

Westchester Hospital Installs First Newborn Safety Digital Scanning System in NY State

Northern Westchester Hospital has become the first hospital in New York State to install a state-of-the-art infant safety system developed by CertaScan Technologies.


As a new parent, you'll want to make sure that you have every aspect of your baby's safety taken care of. Whether that be finding the right car seat, babyproofing your home for the first time, or even learning how to speak to your baby a certain way to facilitate speech development. So why not take your safety measures one step further and ensure that their easily identifiable in case of an abduction? That's why one Westchester Hospital is upping the ante with the latest in baby identification technology.

There’s nothing more precious than new life, and Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, NY is taking new strides towards newborn safety. The Westchester hospital has become the first hospital in New York State to install a state-of-the-art infant safety system developed by CertaScan Technologies.

The proprietary system allows the hospital to capture high-resolution digital footprints of newborns instead of traditional inked prints. These digital footprints are then stored in the newborn’s electronic medical record (EMR).



The Newborn Safety System offers a solution to providing a permanent record for infants, since it can be difficult to take a baby’s fingerprints and baby’s irises are not fully formed at birth. Like fingerprints, a baby’s footprint pattern can be quickly scanned for identification in the event of an emergency.

According to Tracey Thompson Lander, RN, Director of Maternal Child Health Services at NWH, the scans are taken of every infant, and are free to patients, who also receive a copy as a keepsake. “We are excited to offer this new service to our patients. We reviewed the product with our Mother-Baby Team and thought it would be a great keepsake for parents in addition to an important safety feature. Infant abductions are very rare, but these digital scans are extremely useful if a child is lost or separated from their parents,” she says. “Patients want to know that we have infant safety and security measures in place and this system offers the latest technology to ensure infant identification.”

The system has been praised by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and is recommended to hospitals in the NCMEC’s most recent infant security guidelines.

Officials say the system is entirely safe for use on babies and provides outstanding footprint quality.


More Baby Articles:

Things to Do with Kids in Westchester this Weekend

Enjoy these fun weekend activities with your kids in Westchester. Start planning your weekend now.


Latest News:

Normal Baby Spit-up: Is Your Baby Healthy?

Here's what you need to know about healthy baby spit-up from a pediatric gastroenterologist at the Children's Hospital of Brooklyn at Maimonides Medic...


Family Activities:



Have a Laugh:

Best Memes of the Week for Parents

Here are the funniest parenting memes from Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit this week.
Brigitt Earley

Author: Brigitt Earley is a freelance writer and editor based in NJ. She’s a new mom to a baby boy, runs an Instagram account full of the most delicious food she can find (@literallyallthefood), and loves to hate a good barre class. See More

Featured Listings:

Tim Morehouse Fencing Club

Tim Morehouse Fencing Club

Port Chester, NY Looking for a fun and challenging sport for your child? Try fencing. It’s a sport of strategy that engages both mind and body. Fencing is great for sp...

The Nurtury Montessori School

The Nurtury Montessori School

The aim of a Montessori program is to foster the development of basic trust and to assist in the normal development of the personality.