GB2307081A

GB2307081A - Hospital security alarm system

Info

Publication number: GB2307081A
Application number: GB9520315A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Richard David James Coull
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1995-10-05
Filing date: 1995-10-05
Publication date: 1997-05-14
Also published as: GB9520315D0

Abstract

The sensor part of the alarm is a pad placed under the mattress of a baby's cot giving the following advantages over alternative systems using plastic tags; (1) There is no longer anything in direct contact with, or fitted onto, the baby, and the alarm is therefore harder to 'fool'. (2) As the alarm sensor is on the cot and not around an exit door, the alarm is sounded as soon as an abduction is attempted. The system also comprises an extension alarm which can be kept at a permanently manned location - i.e. the nurses station, or a security centre, and units, worn about the person of the nurses and the parents of the baby, which deactivate the alarm system when in the vicinity of the child's cot. The system rearms itself when no "authorised person" (a person holding, or carrying, one of these units) is in the vicinity of the cot.

Description

This invention relates to a cot security alarm for hospital maternity units.

Security in hospitals is usually not as high a priority as for other places - for example - department stores. However, recent years have shown that, at least in the maternity units of our hospitals little, or no, security can no longer be accepted, as the horrific crime of " baby - snatching " is given more and more media attention. In the summer of 1994, for over a month, the abduction of a 4 - hour old infant was featured highly in every newspaper in the country.

The conclusion of that incident was followed by a public expectation to see improved security for the protection ofthe nation's children.

The main system that was proposed for this problem was a " tagging system, involving a plastic transponder tag worn around the wrist or ankle of the infant concerned. If the child is removed from the ward, a detector fitted around the exit door picks up the signal from the tag and sounds the alarm.

This system, however, relies on the presence of the plastic tag on the infant if a potential abductor should cut off, or otherwise remove, the tag, the system is rendered useless.

According to the present invention there is a hospital security alarm system for use in maternity units, where the sensor part ofthe alarm is built around the child's cot rather than relying on plastic tags worn around the child's wrist or ankle. This gives the following advantages, (1) There is no longer anything in direct contact with, or fitted onto, the child, (2) Because of (1) above, the unit is harder to disable illegally ( whereas the plastic tags can be cut off), (3) As the alarm sensor is on the cot and not around an exit door, the alarm is sounded as soon as an abduction is attempted.

There are figures accompanying this specification to aid the visualisation of the system, in which, Figure 1 shows a side view of a maternity cot, showing the position of the mattress which senses the presence / absence of the child, and the position of the unit which contains the electronic control circuitry for the system, Figure 2 shows the parts which comprise the system, 2 (a) shows the main control unit, which is battery powered and connects to the sensor pad, 2 (b) shows the extension alarm, which can be kept at a remote, permanently manned location - i.e. the nurses station, or a security centre, 2 (c) shows the unit, worn about the person of the nurses and the parents of the baby, which deactivates the alarm system when in the vicinity of the child's cot. The system rearms itself when no " authorised person " ( a person holding, or carrying, one of these units ) is in the close vicinity of the cot.

Figure 3 shows a plan view of a maternity wing showing relevant points of alarm. Point ' A ' - at the exit door - is where the tagging system would trigger the alarm. Point ' B ' is where the proposed cot alarm system would sound the alarm.

Claims

1) A hospital security alarm system for use in hospital maternity units, where the sensor part of the alarm is built around the child's cot rather than relying on plastic tags worn around the child's wrist or ankle.

2) A hospital security alarm system as claimed in claim 1, where no physical ' connection ' is needed between the system and the child it protects, and no tag is required to be worn on the child's wrist or ankle.

3) A hospital security alarm system as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the nurses and the parents have coded ' fobs ' which deactivate the alarm system automatically when in close proximity to the cot.

4) A hospital security alarm system as claimed in claim 3 where the ' fobs can be reprogrammed with new codes as is necessary.

5) A hospital security alarm system as claimed in claims 1 - 4 above, where an extension alarm is included to remotely indicate that an alarm condition has occurred.

6) A hospital security alarm system as described herein with reference to figures 1 - 4 of the accompanying drawing.

Amendments to the claims have been filed as follows 1. An alarm system for monitoring the presence of children or adults, comprising a mat, a motion sensor, a control unit and an alarm, whereby the motion sensor is coupled to the mat and is adapted to provide a signal to the control unit when movement on the pad occurs, and the control unit comprises means for periodically establishing the presence of a signal from the motion sensor indicative of movement on the mat and means for triggering the alarm if the presence of the signal is not detected within a specified period of time.

2. An alarm system according to Claim 1, wherein the control unit comprises an alarm trigger circuit and a trigger resetting circuit for periodically resetting the alarm trigger circuit when the presence is detected of a signal from the motion sensor indicative of movement on the mat.

3. An alarm system according to Claim 1 or 2, further comprising an authorisation key for use by an authorised person, the authorisation key comprising a coded transmitter for transmitting a coded signal, the control unit comprising a receiver and code recognition means, whereby the code recognition means is adapted to recognise whether the coded signal received by the receiver is a predetermined authorised coded signal.

4. An alarm system according to Claim 3, wherein the control unit comprises an alarm disabling circuit which prevents the alarm being triggered if the code recognition means recognises the coded signal received by the receiver as a predetermined authorised coded signal.

5. An alarm system according to Claim 3 or 4, comprising a plurality of control units, each control unit having a corresponding mat and motion sensor, the system further comprising a plurality of authorisation keys, each authorisation key being adapted to transmit a coded signal corresponding to a predetermined authorised coded signal of one control unit.

6. An alarm system according to Claim 5, further comprising at least one master authorisation key adapted to transmit a coded signal corresponding to a predetermined authorised coded signal of all control units.

7. An alarm system according to one of Claims 3 to 6, wherein the or each authorisation key or master authorisation key is reprogrammable with new codes for use with different control units.

8. An alarm system according to any preceding Claim, wherein the alarm is integral with the control unit.

9. An alarm system according to any preceding Claim, further comprising an extension alarm at a location remote from the control unit or units and adapted to indicate that an alarm has been triggered at a control unit.

10. An alarm system according to Claim 9, wherein the extension alarm comprises a display to indicate a reference number corresponding to the number of the control unit at which the alarm has been triggered.

11. An alarm system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.