Technology Smartphones/Iphone/Blackberry, etc and Hospitals

[FruitFly]

Most hospitals have rules not to use cell phones because it could itnerfere with medical equiptment. Indeed, in many of the manufacturers' fine-print, they state this to be a possibility. What allows this to be acceptable for health providers to use these devices in hospitals?

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[diosa428]

Meh. Most people use cell phones in hospitals, whether they are doctors or not. Patients and their family members often have them and are often using them. I'm sure you probably shouldn't have them around certain equipment (maybe in radiology?) but in your regular outpatient office, or on the average hospital floor, there's not really anything that they're interfering with. One would imagine that pagers could have a similar effect and those are also all over hospitals.

 

[NPEMTIV]

Most hospitals have rules not to use cell phones because it could itnerfere with medical equiptment. Indeed, in many of the manufacturers' fine-print, they state this to be a possibility. What allows this to be acceptable for health providers to use these devices in hospitals?

It is certainly possible to experience interference, but with most devices its a minimal possibility and even at that the phone would have to be very close to the medical device in question as the electronics are typically shielded for protection (at least the critical ones). I think the acceptance of healthcare providers using phones is based somewhat on a possibly unfounded sense that the provider would know not to use the phone in close proximity to other medical devices or in certain critical areas.