SINGAPORE: A review committee has come up with 15 recommendations to prevent another baby mix-up at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH).
Two newborn babies were wrongly discharged to their mothers in an incident in November.
The measures involve tightening processes regarding identification of newborns, ward operations, the discharge process, and implementing new technology.
There will be two staff involved in the tagging and re-tagging of babies at all times. Parents will verify the baby's particulars.
The way a baby is tagged will be refined to ensure that the tag does not drop off easily.
There will also be proper documentation for tracking the movement of babies in and out of the nursery.
At a media conference on Wednesday, Chief Executive Officer of KKH Professor Kenneth Kwek said the hospital has accepted all the recommendations made by the four-member committee, and they will be implemented by the end of next month.
Most of the recommendations made had already been acted on and implemented within a week of the incident.
The hospital will act on the remaining recommendations by the end of January.
Professor Kwek also said 17 people involved in the incident have been taken to task.
Three staff nurses directly involved in the mix-up have received disciplinary action. They received written warnings, were suspended from work for a week with no pay, and have been taken out of clinical duties for at least three months.
They will be closely supervised and their performance reviewed for at least six months.
Fourteen ward staff involved also received warnings or counselling.
Professor Kwek said the hospital extended an offer of compensation to the parents over and beyond the cost of their stay, but would not give further details.
The committee noted that the mix-up was triggered when the babies were placed in wrong cots. This resulted in a wrong identification tag being applied to one baby.
KKH earlier said the incident came to light when one of the parents noticed that the baby taken home wore an identification tag belonging to another mother.
The hospital suspected that checks were not carried out properly when the baby was being discharged. The other baby was with the wrong parents for about 10 hours.
- CNA/de
KKH to implement all recommendations by committee in baby mix-up case
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KKH to implement all recommendations by committee in baby mix-up case
