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<P>At our hospital, all clinical personnel in Cardiothoracic & Anesthesia use department issued cell phones, with the walkie-talkie component. I know of no problems with them and any medical equipment. (These are beneficial in trauma in one of our ED's (we have seperate peds/adults ED's), cath lab crashes; codes; transplants; patients being transferred in with VADS; contacting necessary personnel for an over-night emergency, etc).</P>
<P>That said, >15 years ago, we changed all of our telemetry beds from the telemetries that you plung into the monitor, into ones patients wear with a transmitter, so that they do no have to be disconnected to go to the bathroom, ambulate on the wards, etc. When this change transpired, interference in the transmission of the telemetry signal to the central receiving station was interfered with, with the use of some cell phones. Consequently, there are signs posted at the entrance to the telemetry units prohibiting the use of cell phones on those units.</P>
<P>While not a biomedical engineer, since it was some time ago the ban was instituted, maybe it was analog devices. Since the cell phones clinicians use do not interfere with the signals, maybe it was a single provider. Due to new equipment that has been installed, maybe the ban is no longer necessary. </P>
<P>~doug~</P>
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<DIV></DIV>From: <I>KMATTOX@aol.com</I><BR>>Our biomed department got very very heavy handed a few years ago when we got<BR>>a person who was brought in from the outside and wanted to push his weight<BR>>around. He passed a bunch of new "safety" rules, including no cell phones in<BR>>the hospital, no cell phones in the ICUs etc. I asked for the data and he<BR>>showed me a bunch of things much like we are reading from the tree huggers<BR>>relating to global warming. I told him that I was delighted to support him,<BR>>but that a change of policy would have to come to the Medical Executive<BR>>Committee. I asked that he set up a monitor demonstration in the executive<BR>>committee to demonstrate
how the various cell phones affected pacemakers,<BR>>monitors, ECGs, etc. He spent three months trying to show ANY effect on ANY<BR>>device by ANY cell phone. NOTHING. We never saw any new policies and still<BR>>use cell phones in the ICUs and in the hospital.<BR>><BR>>k</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></div></html>