After the recent release of the cellphone study, should they allow them in the hospitals now?

Question

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthnews/2453/hospitals-should-allow-cell-phone-use

Personally i think they should, but have restrictions on the usages, like you can't be talking on it for the sake of talking on it when tons of people are around. But if you are in your private room, thats fine.

Answer 1

from someone who works in a hospital it's a tough call. i read the article and have also read articles where the cell phone has caused issues with IV pumps. i guess it depends on who does the study what the results will be.
i actually don't have a problem with people using their cell phone in the hospital it should just be in an appropriate place. in a patient's room when they have a roommate is not the appropriate place. also, in the ICU. it becomes disturbing to the other patient's and their family. there are plenty of places people can use their phones... lobby, waiting area, hallway to name a few. i also think that people should put the phone on vibrate when they are in the hospital. it becomes very distracting to those of us who are working and taking care of your family members. the same thing goes to the doctors and residents who find it important to carry their phones with them and then when it rings answer it in the middle of a patients room. i find that rude and have seen it happen way too many times.

Answer 2

My husband and I have always used our cell phones in hospitals in Las Vegas - except for the one time he was in ICU.
We used them because we are night owl type people who want to talk to each other and give encouragement to one another. The problem with using the hospital phone is that most hospitals have restrictions on how late or how early they will ring an outside call to a room regardless of request by the patient and regardless of it being a private room or not.

Our cell phone usage has NEVER disrupted hospital equipment.

Cell phones should be allowed because the patient needs the comfort of being able to call whomever they wish.

Answer 3

I'd agree, in principle. Here in the UK hospitals have developed ways of squeezing money out of patients and their relatives to the point where they should be ashamed - car parking charges, for example, are exorbitant - and of course in NHS hospitals there are (or used to be) no bedside phones and quite often no way for patients and relatives to communicate.

Then some bright spark out to make money started a business whereby the bed's inmate could hire - for a few pounds a day - a combination personal TV, radio, and phone; but there was a huge uproar when it was discovered that the cost of making an incoming call was close to £1 per minute - the standard state pension is about £130. And for the first minute you got to listen to some advertising. When you think of the number of elderly people in hospital, this is plain iniquitous. I don't know whether the extent of the public outcry got it stopped, but I would far prefer a system whereby people could have their mobile phones and a certain degree of normal courtesy was asked for as a matter of plain ward management.

Answer 4

I haven't read the study but, some hospitals do allow cell phone usage. There are restricted areas in the hospital where you can't use them but, in lobbies, private rooms, etc., you can.

Answer 5

I work in a very large hospital and until a couple of years ago cell phone use was strictly forbidden because their use could interfere with medical equipment. Progress has been made and cell phones are allowed with only certain areas where you still can not use them.