668 FOOTPRINTING THE NEWBORN-COST EFFECTIVE?

Abstract

Footprinting the newborn for identification is a routine procedure in most hospitals and mandatory by law in many states. We examined the quality of the footprints in full term infants in light of the cost. Twenty pairs of footprints were taken by experienced nursing personnel in each of five hospitals classified as Level III or II for neonatal care. The 100 sets of footprints were then examined by an experienced police dermatoglyphist for the quality of the footprints for identification of the newborn. Eighty-nine of the pairs of footprints were technically inadequate. The major problems were improper inking (predominantly too much ink) 35, smudging or foot movement 22, and poor detail even with adequate inking 32. The cost of footprinting in materials and clean-up is approximately 25c for each pair of footprints taken. This does not include nursing time. Nationally this represents a cost in excess of $500,000 per year. A review of the medical and legal literature failed to disclose a single instance in which the newborn footprints were used in court for Identification of an infant. Ours and previous studies suggest that the vast majority of footprints are technically adequate to do so. In an era of cost containment, footprinting newborns, with no control on quality, wastes time and money.