[IP] Re: Cell phones don't interefere with hospital devices

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Steven J. Davidson" <davidson@pobox.com>
Date: March 10, 2007 6:02:54 PM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: lauren@vortex.com
Subject: RE: [IP] Cell phones don't interefere with hospital devices

Dave-

Well, no. It's not the revenue, at least it's not the revenue at the  
30 or
so hospitals with which I'm familiar through semi-regular meetings  
with the
physician IT champions and leaders.

Hospitals are bureaucratic and conservative; mostly because of the  
legal and
regulatory environment they inhabit. That's enough of a reason. The
relatively unsophisticated implementations and management of
telecommunication technologies in many hospitals perhaps is an  
additional
contributor

In our organization, which has allowed cell phone usage for about two  
years
now, we had some objections over the unclear benefit of the change to  
the
organization itself and the fear of social disruptions: that some
people--staff, patients, family and others--may behave rudely.

Regards to you and your list./Steve
--
Steven J. Davidson, MD, MBA, Chair, Emerg. Med. | Maimonides Med. Ctr.
4802 Tenth Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11219 | 718.283.6030/6042 voice/fax


-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave@farber.net]
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 22:47
To: ip@v2.listbox.com
Subject: [IP] Cell phones don't interefere with hospital devices



Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Date: March 9, 2007 9:11:30 PM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: lauren@vortex.com
Subject: Study: Cell phones don't interefere with hospital devices


Dave,

This study reports that while anti-theft devices may interfere with
pacemakers, cell phones don't disrupt medical devices at hospitals.

This is not a surprising result.  While patients at many hospitals
are prohibited from using cell phones, it is common for hospital
personnel to have them.  If cell phones are powered on and available
for calls, even if not actually engaged in calls, communication
with the mobile networks will occur at intervals.

Why does one suspect that a major reason for the patient cell phone
bans is to protect the revenue stream from patient calls on the
hospital phone systems?  True, this is probably a drop in the bucket
compared with other patient costs, but every little bit helps, right?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/03/09/cellphones.hospital.reut/index.html

--Lauren--


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