"The camera performed so well that after a few weeks, we decided to acquire the AXIS 210 permanently," recalls Filip de Belser, system manager for Salvator-St. Ursula hospital.
Premature babies sometimes stay in a hospital's neonatal department for a number of months. For parents who live some distance from the hospital or those who need to return to work, not being able to be with their child all the time can bring on feelings of guilt and difficulty in picking up the threads of their lives. To give such parents some peace of mind, the Salvator-St. Ursula hospital in Hasselt, Belgium wanted to provide parents with the ability to remotely monitor their babies from wherever they may be.
Initially, the neonatology department thought of installing a Webcam. However, a Webcam has to be connected to a laptop or PC and there was no room for one in the department. The camera had to be easy to install and simple to move. The video quality also had to be high, and for these reasons, the department chose not to consider a Webcam.
Solution
To examine the problem, the systems management department called in implementation partner, Trius, who proposed the use of Axis network cameras.
"We were familiar with these cameras because we had used them before in various security projects," says Trius project manager, Bart Van De Sompel. "Network cameras were simple and quick to connect because there was already an IP network in place. The picture quality of Axis cameras is also much better than the average Webcam. And because there was a built-in Web server, there was no need to connect up a PC in the immediate vicinity of the room."
Trius offered the systems management department the opportunity to try out the camera first. In August 2004, the department installed the AXIS 210 Network Camera in short order.
Results
"The camera performed so well that after a few weeks, we decided to acquire the AXIS 210 permanently," recalls Filip de Belser, system manager for Salvator-St. Ursula hospital. "Installation was straightforward and the bandwidth posed no problems. If required, we could adjust the number of images per second so that there would be no problem with overloading the network."
"With the Axis camera, parents can now watch their child through the simple expedient of logging on to a Web site," says Mr. de Belser. "The system is particularly secure because the parents are the only ones to have a special little box into which they have to enter an access code, just like Internet banking. The other thing is the system can be controlled by a single person."
Since installation, various babies have been monitored using the AXIS 210 Network Camera.
"The pictures from the network camera are a good solution, especially when the parents live a long way from the hospital," says Johan Grauwels, communications manager for Salvator-St. Ursula hospital. "
This does not mean that the cameras should be used to take the place of parents' visits. But it makes it easier for them to pick up the threads of their lives without feeling guilty that they are not doing enough for their child. They are now able to monitor their child throughout the day, whether they are at home or at work."
"The first and most important result is to give parents peace of mind," says Mr. Grauwels. "And that is a result that we have most definitely achieved."
Mr. Grauwels sees prospects for implementing Axis network cameras in other areas of the hospital, for example, with patients in intensive care or in providing a video room to enable patients to keep in contact with their families.
