Saint-Denis Hospital Center has introduced a mobile neonatology unit that allows premature newborns to leave the hospital earlier, while still being closely monitored at home. The project, which began in February, uses Masimo SafetyNet®, a cloud-based telemonitoring system that enables hospital-grade care from a distance, giving families the chance to bring their babies home without sacrificing medical oversight.
For parents of premature babies, the transition from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to home can be daunting. Dr. Pascal Bolot, head of neonatal intensive care at Saint-Denis, understands this challenge well. “We know how hard it is for families to go from a highly controlled hospital environment to suddenly being at home,” he said. That’s why this new program aims to smooth that transition, using technology to ensure the newborns are still under a watchful eye, even if they’re no longer in the hospital.
The heart of the project is Masimo SafetyNet, which allows hospital staff to monitor babies’ vital signs remotely. After being discharged, families are sent home with a small, easy-to-use sensor that attaches to the baby’s foot. This sensor continuously tracks the baby’s oxygen levels and other key health indicators, sending the data to both the parents’ smartphones and directly to the hospital.
Through a secure portal, doctors and nurses can monitor multiple babies from the hospital, alerting them to any changes that might require attention. For parents, this provides reassurance—they can keep an eye on their baby’s health and know that the medical team is just a call away if anything seems off.
Saint-Denis Hospital has long been at the forefront of home-based care for newborns. In the past, the hospital had already launched a home visitation program for premature infants, helping families adapt to life after NICU. Now, with the addition of the Masimo SafetyNet technology, the hospital is taking things a step further, allowing babies to come home even earlier, all while maintaining high standards of care.
Typically, premature babies are required to stay in the hospital until they reach 36 weeks of corrected age. With this new system, that could change. The idea is to bridge the gap between the NICU and home, making sure that even the most vulnerable newborns get the care they need while being with their families.
If the program proves successful, it could reshape how hospitals handle neonatal and pediatric care. Saint-Denis Hospital hopes that this new approach could lead to wider use of remote monitoring for babies and children, potentially allowing more families to benefit from earlier discharge and more personalized care.
As Dr. Bolot put it, “The goal is to bring babies home as soon as it’s safe, while still giving families the support and supervision they need during those first critical weeks.”