Doctors check on fetuses online

Your hospital may be known best for how it handles moms-to-be and their babies. To boost your reputation, you might want to take a look at how a Rochester hospital is using a new $350,000 fetal monitoring system that allows doctors and nurses to monitor unborn babies' heartbeats and moms' contractions in real time on a computer software system. The system can be accessed outside the patient room and over the Internet at Park Ridge Hospital in Rochester, NY.

Staff stationed at the Family Birth Place at Park Ridge can now watch the vital signs of all their patients in labor from computer stations in the unit, instead of having to go into each individual room to read the monitors. Doctors can also access the fetal heartbeats and contractions of their patients from remote locations, such as their homes, if they can't immediately be at the bedside. The system is secure, and Internet access is only available for those who are caring for the patient.

To get more background on Park Ridge's fetal-monitoring effort:
- check out this article from the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle