Preventing Infant and Pediatric Abduction: The Unthinkable Nightmare Complying With CMS and TJC Standards

This program is a must to attend for any healthcare facility that would like to maintain a safe environment by preventing infant and pediatric abductions. This program will provide information on the Joint Commission and CMS hospital CoP standards on this topic and how to comply with their standards. It will discuss the five key physical, security, and other measures hospitals and healthcare facilities must take to prevent abductions. This program will discuss the revised recommendations from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on the Guidelines on prevention and response to infant abduction that every hospital and birthing center should be familiar with.

An infant abducted from a healthcare facility would be a tragic event for both the parents and facility and a media nightmare. About 95% of infant abductions result in litigation. Make sure your facility is up to date on what it should be doing and when. You do not want the unthinkable nightmare of an infant or child abduction to happen at your facility. There have been infants abducted from the hospital but not by strangers but family members in some cases so this issue will be discussed.

The abductor of the infant kidnapped from the Harlem Hospital in New York 25 years ago was sentenced. This program will discuss some cases from hospitals and what might have prevented the abductions.

• Discuss the important components of a good infant and pediatric abduction program including policies and procedures, training of staff and parents, controlling access, and development of a critical incident response plan.
• Describe what information should be communicated to the mother to minimize the risk of abduction,
• Recall that the Joint Commission and CMS Hospital have standards as they relate to infant and pediatric abduction.

• Introduction
• 5 things every hospital and birthing facility should be doing
• Enhanced security and integrated technology to reduce the risk of abduction
• Recent infant abductions or attempted 
• Lack of trust from the community if an abduction occurs
• Data on the total number of abductions
• Infant abduction; a sentinel event
• Case examples
• CMS standards for hospitals
• CMS revised tag 701 
• CMS survey process.
• Joint Commission Standards
  • EC.02.01.01 EP 9 infant and pediatric abduction
  • EM.01.01.01 Hazard Vulnerability Analysis
• Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert
• Six root causes of infant abduction 
• Sentinel event trends
• Strategies for reducing risk
• TJC FAQ on infant abductions and drills
• Recommendations for drills
• Sample FMEAs on infant abduction
• Policy and procedure on prevention of child/infant abductions
• Key steps to preventing
• Liability issues 
• Historical perspective
• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children revised documents
• Self-assessment tool for health care facilities 
• Typical abductor profile
• Profile of an infant
• Where abducted in the healthcare setting
• Total newborns/infants abducted in the US and where
• Educational material for parents
• Signed form by mother
• Birth announcements 
• Abductions from the home and violence
• Key physical and security measures to take 
• Policies and procedures to put in place 
• Controlling access
• Educating staff
• Critical incident response plans 
• In summary
• Resources
• Mock drills 
• Parent handouts

OB and nursery nurses and nurse manager, pediatric nurses and nurse manager, chief nursing officer, risk manager, safety and security officers, security staff, patient safety officer, compliance officer, patient safety team members, consumer advocate, nurse educator, and any other person who is involved in keeping pediatric patients and infants safe.