Hospital Rooms: No Cell Phone Zones?

Experts Say The Phones May Interfere With Some Critical Care Medical Devices

(WebMD)  Dutch doctors on Thursday reminded hospital visitors to turn off their cell phones - for the sake of health, not etiquette.

The reason: Cell phones may interfere with critical care equipment such as ventilators and external pacemakers, report the University of Amsterdam's Erik Jan van Lieshout, M.D., and colleagues. With that in mind, van Lieshout's team supports the practice of keeping cell phones at least a yard away from medical equipment or hospital beds.

That guideline "seems safe" but doesn't totally prevent the possibility of cell phones causing electromagnetic interference in hospital equipment, the researchers write.

They tested cell phones near 61 medical devices that weren't hooked up to patients.

In the tests, the cell phones caused 48 "incidents" in 26 devices. A third of those incidents were hazardous, such as totally switching off and restarting a mechanical ventilator, completely stopping syringe pumps without setting off an alarm, and causing incorrect pulses in an external pacemaker.

Another 42 percent of the incidents were classified as "significant" but not hazardous. Examples of significant incidents were incorrectly setting off an alarm or inaccurately monitoring blood pressure.

The remaining incidents were considered "light," such as disruptions of monitor displays that didn't require immediate attention.

The researchers note that their testing situations were "worst-case" scenarios. But they argue that their findings support restricting cell phone use in hospitals to areas where electromagnetic interference wouldn't be a problem.

The study appears online in the journal Critical Care.

[raylor4]

My wife is a nurse in a hospital and she says frequencies of telemetrics was changed many years ago so as not to coincide with cell phone frequencies. Also, the article does not mention weather the cell phones are digital or analog. This would make a HUGE difference. This reminds me of the stories about cell phones causing fires at gas stations and bees to lose their way to the hive. Ray A.

[michellem99-2009]

I love it if they would use it only when needed. I don''t know witch is worse cars or moblie phone.
Both. I saw a lady on the bus use it as it is meant to. I like my friend to check in when out I know he is fine if he does. Turn them off in place when lots of people. Would like a peaceful time.SHUT THE BLOODY THING OFF .

[mofolo]

Are their phones analog or digital. I remember analog cell phones messing up our tlephone system but have not noticed any problems now that cells are digital. Mo

[plane51]

I work in a hospital and I have never seen any of these so called malfunctions in equipment.Doctors use cellphones 6 inches away from anesthesia and monitoring equipment with no problems.Not to sure about this study.Maybe their equipment isnt compatible with cellphones.

[keithle1]

"I know Gramps is dying & this is the last time you''ll see him kids but hurry it up, I gotta use my cellphone!"