Cellphones good for patient care: study

Maybe it's time for hospitals to start taking down those "no cellphones" signs. A new study from the Yale University School of Medicine found that allowing doctors to use cellphones to communicate reduces error rates by allowing more timely communication. The study, conducted among anesthesiologists, found that 40% of the doctors who used pagers as their main form of communication (people still use pagers?) suffered communication delays. Meanwhile, 31% of the doctors who used cellphones instead said they suffered delays. The study pointed out that, while cellphones still pose a 2.4% risk of interference with life-support devices, it's an acceptable risk, since it's lower than the 14.9% risk of injuries due to communication delays. Of course, if you're on life support equipment, you may want to keep the "no cellphones" sign up on your door and let the doctor make his calls from the hallway.

[Via textually.org]

[Conrad Quilty-Harper @ Jan 27th 2006 5:43PM]

Not that you'd have much choice, being on life support and all.

[Brad C @ Jan 27th 2006 6:05PM]

Or maybe they should build life support equipment that isn't affected by cell phones...

[E71 @ Jan 27th 2006 6:20PM]

I agree with Brad... just work on improving the LSMs.

[taylor muller @ Jan 27th 2006 8:35PM]

your math is off.
and yes, my own self worth did actually go up because i pointed that out.

[Wry Cooter @ Jan 27th 2006 8:55PM]

It is less of a problem than it used to be, especially as more cell phones are on a different frequency range than the telemetry, and with these same phones being digital rather than analog.

The dirty secret remains however, is that hospitals will still give you the warnings, because use of your cell phone digs into one of their cash cows, the charges they will add to your hospital bill for an outgoing call. Outrageou$.

[bigbear @ Jan 27th 2006 9:04PM]

The hospital where I work has a system of in place using cell phones. The aren't off the shelf models, they are big and ugly but the don't interfere with machines.

[Shayne @ Jan 27th 2006 10:46PM]

I work in a large urban hospital, and our docs get their phones approved by Biomed Engineering before using them in the buildings. What I always love is when you say 'Excuse me ma'am, but you have to use the phone either in the main lobby, the cafeteria, or outside" and you get the "I'll use it where ever I see fit,it's mine" response. Then they always looked shocked when told their two options are to leave the premises or be arrested for trespass.

[JB @ Jan 27th 2006 10:47PM]

Cell phones only interfere with epuiment if they're old analog models, and even then usually only if they're close to the equipment. It can happen but you're more likely to trip and unplug something. I was on a ventilator for 6 weeks and no one's phone killed me. Wry Cooter is right about hospitals using it for the moolah.

[duh @ Jan 27th 2006 11:17PM]

i say keep the signs. i use my cell anyway, but it keeps the rabble (patient families) from yakking while we are rounding.

[Oliver in Seattle @ Jan 28th 2006 12:14AM]

When you work in the bowels of an urban hospital in a department with lead lined walls, your cellphone is unlikely to provide reliable communication. Even the RAZR (which has arguably the best RF available today) is less than 50/50 where I work. That said, cellies don't interfere with the one piece of equipment I'd worry most about - the MRI scanner.


JB - just a correction: doesn't matter if the phone is digital or analog, you still can get interference. On a digital phone it's mostly from the control exchange rather than actually talking - it's that buzzing you hear through your speakers just before your phone rings.

Wry - most hospitals won't charge you for a local call (and ours won't let you make a long distance call either).

O

[Lisa @ Jan 28th 2006 2:01AM]

> let the doctor make his calls from the hallway.

HIS?? Can't say I care for the male assumption there.

Other than that, yes, it's an informative article.

[Miles @ Jan 28th 2006 2:50AM]

I'm a medical student in Belgium and at the university hospital they removed those signs and replaced them with one that says that you can't use it when closer then 1m from life support machines. So most doctor use there cell-phone in the hospital even in the OR. And if they want to play safe, every doctor and most haed nurses have a DECT phone working on the hospitals DECT network and the can just set their cell phone to transfer their calls to their DECT so they only have to carry one phone and can make free calls to other doctors and nurses in the hospital.

[Ted @ Jan 28th 2006 11:27AM]

Imagine the legal position of a manufacturer or vendor of life-support equipment that can't work properly if someone, somewhere, uses a cell phone. A bankrupting, business-closing liability at least. Possibly criminal negligence. It's not as if cellphones had just been invented.

Control freaks love to tell people how to behave (anonymous signs are a particular favorite), but in the end the fault is with the equipment, not the phone user.

And, of course, with the institution that entrusts its patients lives to such equipment without ensuring that it can work in what is today a normal human environment.

[Andre @ Jan 28th 2006 2:33PM]

I would much rather have them turned off. They are terrible depending on how people use them. Some just shout into the telephone.

[Wmurphy @ Jan 28th 2006 10:34PM]

At our local hospital we were told that "yes you can use the phone... but not in any occupied areas where there might be patients." The reasoning is that you might have gotten up from your chair next to grandpa and moved to the other side of the room... but the wall you are leaning against also has another side that is someone elses room. You can't expect a visitor to know the layout of areas on the other side of room walls... thus it is safer to leave the area entirely.

[TCHRH @ Jan 29th 2006 3:21PM]

All the arguments about the doc can use the cell phone down the hall, etc. seem to forget that the cell phone is transmitting and receiving while it is making contact with the cell tower site with the usual first contact being made at the highest power. This is with just turning it on: it has nothing to do with when you begin to talk/use it.

[Cuba @ Jan 30th 2006 12:34AM]

Don't pagers operate on the cell network?

[katie @ Jan 30th 2006 6:56AM]

I've been employed as a nurse for over 30 years now.
I think using a cellphone by physicians as well as nurses is a good idea if it helps the quality of care for our patients. I have used my cellphone on occasion
when working on the night shift w/ emergency situations.