# Cell phones in hospitals **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 23, 2006, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phones-in-hospitals/373830 "2006-09-23T08:13:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phones-in-hospitals/373830/21 "2006-09-24T02:28:21Z")
[QUOTE=Operation Ripper] Now, what about cellphone use on airplanes? [/QUOTE] And what if the nurse is on a treadmill? _ducks_ But yeah, nowadays, I would say the benefits of restrictions on cell phone use in a hospital would be about the same as for restricting them on airplanes. Helps keep people from getting distracted/irritated/driventoahomicidalrage by some obnoxious doof blatthering away on his cel phone. Or, goodness forbid, 100 obnoxious doofs on the phones. That said, a person on a cell phone is somewhat unlikely to physically get in the way of aircrew in a crisis because he’s on the phone, compared to someone standing around in a hospital potentially getting in the way of hospital staff in a crisis due to his being immersed in a Null-Situational Awareness Zone. Yaknow, I should start telling folks that they can’t have cell phones in class because it intereferes with the computer podiums that lots of college lecture halls use. I bet I could get more then a few to believe it. I still fondly remember the time that I got a girl in high school in Oklahoma to believe that Jackalopes really did exist in Texas. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phones-in-hospitals/373830/22 "2006-09-24T02:45:06Z")
[QUOTE=Danalan] Long-time bio-medical equipment technician checking in here. Early and poorly designed cell phones can indeed cause problems with poorly designed medical equipment. I’ve seen literature proving it, and I’ve tested it myself. I saw a ventilator stop ventilating in the mere presence of a cell phone. It was a real problem, at least in the 90’s. [/QUOTE] Hey, I didn’t know there were any other biomed techs here. I’m no longer one myself, though. I worked in a hospital for two years as the sole on-site biomed-tech (you can imagine how fun _that_ was.) And, seeing as I was working there very recently, there were never any problems from cell phone use, _we’re pretty sure_. Right before I left the ICU telemetry system was having a bitch of time going down almost every day sometime between 3:30 and 5:00 PM. It would go out for a few second, then come back on, and do that off and on for an hour or so. We never figured out the source of the interference, but given the regularity of it, it’s doubtful it was ever a cell phone. And just to give some background info, most medical equipment telemetry systems broadcast in the 608-614 MHz range, and a few others broadcast in the 1395-1400 Mhz. and 1429-1432 MHz range as well. Older units (we had one remaining such unit in use by cardiac rehab) broadcast somewhere in the 425-500MHz range (I forget the exact range,but that’s close.) In contrast, current cell phones broadcast at 850 MHz and 1850 MHz, so there isn’t any real chance for overlap. Many hospitals allow cell phones everywhere, some allow then in some places, and some ban them outright, though the latter does seem a bit extreme considering the extremely low chance of interference. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phones-in-hospitals/373830/23 "2006-09-24T03:45:28Z")
I think it’s worth noting that cell phone interference (whatever it’s interfering with) is proximity-based. Even in an ICU, just restricting cell phone use to hallways would be sufficient, but better safe than sorry. It’s the same for wireless network devices, which can also interfere with hospital equipment. If a problem arises, just moving a wireless router or whatever a few feet corrects the problem. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phones-in-hospitals/373830/24 "2006-09-25T00:34:14Z")
Incidentally today, we had a sea lion sedated and on a ventilator while the veterinarian was performing a spinal tap. Then the vet tech’s cell phone went off while she was holding the vet’s needles and sample tubes. The only side effect was considerable embarrassment for the vet tech. Howevere, I don’t doubt what others have said regarding certain combinations of equipment and types of cell phones. ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phones-in-hospitals/373830/25 "2006-09-25T01:51:48Z")
Hi, I work at a vet clinic- we have signs that ask people not to use cell phones and most assume that its because of the medical equipment. However, the reason we ask people to turn them off because ALOT of people are rude jerks who will answer the cell phone in the rooms while in consultation with the doctor. On more than one occasion, we’ve had people who were on the phone from the time they walked in until they checked out. I can’t believe how rude people are about cell phones. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phones-in-hospitals/373830/26 "2006-09-25T03:31:23Z")
We have a no cell phone policy in our ER. To use our pay phones, you might pay twenty-five cents, making a considerable profit for our hospital of tens of dollars each day. If you ask the staff, we’ll let you make a local call for free from one of the desk or wall phones. The old cell phones did interfere with heart monitors and telemetry equipment. This hasn’t been a problem for many years, but the worry persists and most hospitals have a no cellphone policy. More recent research papers confirm it is not a big problem anymore. But we see a lot of jerks in the ER and they really are the ones most likely to flout the pollcy. ---
**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phones-in-hospitals/373830/27 "2006-09-25T16:18:38Z")
[QUOTE=t-bonham@scc.net] Also, the land line phones installed in hospital rooms make quite a profit for the hospital. But surely that wouldn’t enter into this at all, would it? [/QUOTE] Maybe it’s the pneumonia addling my brain but could you explain how having land line phones in patient rooms generates tremendous revenue for the hospital? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phones-in-hospitals/373830/28 "2006-09-25T19:33:47Z")
[QUOTE=evilbeth] Maybe it’s the pneumonia addling my brain but could you explain how having land line phones in patient rooms generates tremendous revenue for the hospital? [/QUOTE] It’s probably not _tremendous_, but it is nearly all profit. The landlines were installed years ago, when the hospital was built, and that cost has long since been depreciated. Hospitals typically charge a higher fee for a room with a phone. Maybe only $2-$4 per day, but that’s $700-$1400 per year, far more than their cost. Plus many hospitals are now charging in addition (just like hotels) for each call from those phones. Not just for long distance calls, but sometimes even for local calls. The charges are more than the actual cost to the hospital for these calls. So all of this amounts to profits made by the hospital on use of their landline phones. Probably not a large profit, compared to a hospitals budget, and possibly all absorbed into the cost of maintaining the non-patient phone system. But if patients & visitors use cellphones instead, thel revenue from the hospital landlines is lost. And the money to install those was spent long ago, so the hospital can’t cut costs when landline usage declines. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phones-in-hospitals/373830.md?page=1)