WORLAND - During the October hospital board meeting Thursday evening, board members learned that the hospital had recently installed an infant security system that would make infant and child abduction from the hospital extremely difficult, if not impossible.

“That system is something that you are going to see in major medical centers. I don’t know what other small community facilities have around here but this is probably the best. This is the same system that we put in Banner Children’s Medical Center and Banner Desert Medical Center where we have approximately 4,800 births a year. It’s a very sophisticated system; we as Banner are very pleased to be able to bring that level of technology here,” Banner Health Washakie Medical Center CEO Jay Stallings said.

Stallings and Banner Health Washakie Medical Center CNO (chief nursing officer) LeGay Parks went on to explain that the system could be used for children and adult patients. Patients wear a bracelet that cannot be taken off except by authorized personnel, if it is taken off an alarm goes off and the hospital goes into lockdown. If a patient, child or adult goes beyond the perimeter of a particular area an alarm goes off and the hospital goes into lock down and in the event of a child people will be stopped if they are carrying a suspicious bundle, a diaper bag or similar type bag. “It’s a perimeter that we have defined around certain areas of our medical and surgical area so that mom and baby can go into a patient room etc. It’s a security envelope that in the event that a child or baby is transported beyond that, without notifying the system that it’s supposed to be you’re going to get the alarms and then we go into what is called code pink and our entire facility has specific instructions as to where they go and anybody can be stopped,” they said.

They went on to explain, “We are also able to use this system for our adult patients who are maybe confused and wandering and we don’t want to tie them down or make them stay in one small room. Maybe they just want to walk the halls; it will prevent them from going out a doorway where we may not see them. It will help keep them safe and secure.”

In other business board member Kip Mathison expressed his concern about the sign located on the northeast side of the campus where Grace Avenue and S. 15th Street blocking the view of traffic. “When I drive onto 15th Street I have to put the nose of my vehicle certainly into the bicycle track to see around that sign,” he said.

Brad McCaslin with Banner Health Development and Construction stated, “There was an emergency sign there that was basically in the same location. We did meet with the city and make sure that we met all their triangle requirements, because they did have several set back requirements that had to be met and we put it basically right where the city told us to put it.”

Stallings thanked Mathison and said that the hospital would look into the problem.