Babies going online at local hospital

Lake Mead Hospital has announced the birth of a new service -- online websites featuring newborn babies.

The Internet photo gallery is the result of an agreement between the hospital and WebFamily Ventures Inc., a Denver-based company created last year to provide family-oriented websites.

Rick Tallman, head of the company, said the sites provide lasting memories of everything from "births to graduations, weddings and other significant family events. We give families a place to record and share their most precious, treasured milestones."

In October WebFamily Ventures launched WebFamilies, focusing on newborn babies. More than 50 hospitals nationwide use the service and more than 100 are expected to log on in the near future, according to Tallman.

Darlene McQueen, director of Maternal Child Services for Lake Mead Hospital, said it received a free, automated computer system from WebFamily Ventures, which maternity patients can use to create password-protected websites chronicling their children's births.

Equipment includes a laptop computer, a digital camera and wireless technology that patients use to send photos and text to the Internet from their hospital rooms.

She said the system is simple enough for almost anyone.

The laptop computer and camera are on a cart that is rolled into the patient's room. Using step-by-step instructions in English or Spanish, photographs of the newborn child are taken, and pertinent family information is recorded, along with any messages.

Parents use the digital camera to snap up to 16 pictures of their newborns and post them on a WebFamilies website, McQueen said. Captions may be included with the photographs.

"If the patient is completely computer illiterate, nurses can show them how to use it," McQueen said.

WebFamilies uses e-mail to notify family and friends of the pictures. There is no charge for the service. The company makes money from visitors who order copies of pictures or gifts advertised on the site.

A WebFamily Ventures technician installed the equipment and will maintain it, freeing the hospital's nursing and information-technology staffs from additional responsibilities.

The photos and any text are automatically uploaded to the family's newly created, private website via a wireless modem. All data transmissions comply with hospital-approved wireless technology, and the system complies Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which guarantees privacy.

WebFamilies is designed to be an integral part of a hospital's own website and maternity program. Patients may preregister for the service, listing the names of the family members and friends they want to receive birth announcements. Each person is assigned a password, so only those people whom parents have designated have access to a new baby's information.

After the baby leaves the hospital, parents can continue to update their website with new pictures and text, allowing families and friends the chance to visit the site for months or years.

"A personal website for new parents is a great way for them to share the new addition to their family with friends and relatives who can't be there to see the baby firsthand," Bill Moore, head of the 128-bed Lake Mead Hospital, said.

Old-fashioned, hard-copy photographs of babies taken by regular cameras will continue to be available through the hospital.

Only one family at Lake Mead Hospital, which has between 80 and 100 births each month, has used the service since it began last week. "We're just getting started," McQueen said.

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