EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management Mobile phone policy

Havn't read the full nitty gritty, but our Trust policy refers to MDA Safety Notice SN 9706.
As a general rule of thumb, Switch off as one comes into the Hospital and back on when one leaves.
They also have the capability to interfere with fire alarms, and with automatic response equipment I am sure the Fire Brigade are none to pleased to arrive and find that they have been sent on a fools erand by an idiot using a mobile.
As a footnote my school mate was in intensive care (The Brompton I believe), when half the ITU went crazy because of a moblie.
Finally if they don't take any notice call security and have them removed.

RS Components do a mobile phone detector, which detects cell phones and 2 way radios in the frequency range of 400Mhz - 2000Mhz, it has an audible alarm and a voice message requesting the user to stop using their device. This takes away the embarrassment factor of having to tell a colleague to switch the phone off. Book 4 page 344.

Hi Sharon,

Thanks for giving me a call yesterday and the info on your little unit.
We tried a “Phoneguard” from Farnell (Sorry about the bad language) the trouble is in a multi-floored building is someone could be using a mobile phone on the floor below or above and the blinking think keeps going off, that's no help at all when the person using the phone can't hear the warnings.
Thanks for all your replies, I have been following them with great interest, it seems one of the biggest problems is policing it, apart from going around with a gun! But I don't want to make our waiting lists any longer, so I'll forget that idea.

Paul.

Paul,

You are quite right, the range is 2M - 17M radius on our brand, which is different to the F one. You can adjust the sensitivity, but in some areas it might defeat the object. If we were to let you have one to play with and post your comments, would this add value?

This letter was published in the LANCET this week and also a paper in the BMJ on Mobile Phones in Hospitals.

In light of these publications should we not be proactive and review our own Hospital's policy to take on board these findings ?


Sir--Hospitals in the UK have had a ban on mobile phone (cell phone) use on their premises since the early 1990s. This ban was prompted by a warning issued by the UK Medical Devices Agency highlighting the possible risks of mobile phones inadvertently interfering with medical equipment. However, there are, we believe, at least three good reasons to review the current position.
First, almost 10 years after the ban's introduction, there remains an absence of evidence of any real risk to patients' safety. Although a few studies provide some support for the current policy,1,2 most investigators have been more sceptical about the actual risk posed. In a 6-month survey of mobile phone interference in a hospital ward, Hietanen and colleagues3 found no evidence of equipment failures. Irnich and Tobisch4 tested medical devices used in intensive care units for electromagnetic interference from mobile phones, and concluded that "prohibition of mobile phones in hospitals is based not on real evidence, but on an intellectual and precautionary impression without knowledge of susceptibility of the devices". They further argue that "prohibition of mobile phones in patient wards is not justifiable in terms of patient safety".
Second, mobile phones have evolved greatly since the ban was introduced. Evidence suggests that Digital Global System Mobile (GSM) phones currently in use interfere less with medical devices than did their analogue predecessors.3 In light of these technological developments, some groups have suggested that mobile phones may be used even in areas with many instruments, such as critical care units, provided that a separation of at least 1 m is maintained from medical devices.5
Third, the reality is that mobile phones are used in hospitals by patients, their relatives, and medical staff. At present, even when on hospital premises, many consultants prefer to be contacted by mobile phone. Some hospitals have issued specialist registrars with mobile phones so that they can be contacted directly by general practitioners. Furthermore, in our experience, mobile phones are frequently left on in operating theatres, where much potentially vulnerable equipment is in use.
Although mobile phones have not officially been integrated into hospital life, they have become an essential communication tool for modern society; figures from the UK Office of Telecommunications (Oftel) show that 80% of households own at least one. Thus, any ban is likely to prove difficult to enforce.
The absence of any real evidence of risk to patients' safety, coupled with advances in handheld technology, should cause hospital trusts and their advisory bodies to reappraise the current restriction against mobile phone use in hospitals.
*Omer Aziz, Aziz Sheikh, Paraskevas Paraskeva, Ara Darzi . The Lancet March 2003.

(Huw, if you believe there is breach of copyright in 'pasting' this letter please advise so it can be removed)

This is the link to the BMJ paper BMJ - Mobile Phones in Hospitals

Richard,
I have to agree that the only evidence I've seen was based on 80's analogue phones which give off 10 times more radiation.

I still think they should be banned for the nuisance factor. Do we really want the incessant ringing of phones on wards?

dera dera rer, dera dera rer, dera dera rer rer

Hello! Yeah its me, no I'm on the EBME website,
Yeah its great, Ciao

Seriously though I agree with John, we don't need mobiles going off all over the hospital. It's bad enough when the nurses don't put their IVACs back in their base units.

:p

The mobile phone detectors we've looked at have a major problem. Because thet're passive and just sit there looking for a signal from a phone, they won't detect one unless it's a) in use or b) happens to be polling the local transmitter - which most of them only do about every half an hour ! So you can walk past the detector in the corridor and then sit next to the ICU patient having a chat on your phone - then walk back down the corridor without setting the alarm off at all.

The ICU, HDU, CCU, NNU etc staff have expressed the very strong view that they don't want these detectors actually on the ward because of the disturbance they cause when they go off !

Sometimes you just can't win.

Mobile phones actually send an "I am in your cell" message out every 9 seconds. This is not too long to wait and will be detected soon enough by any passive detector.
I did some work for the original report from the MDA.
Robert

Back in 1998 I was called to sort out a fetal monitor that was "Flashing it's lights".
On entering the delivery room I noticed the unit repeatedly doing full startup lights checks.
After a minute of gazing in amazement I realized it was doing the resets in sychronisation with the mumblings fronm the woman's husband who was slouched in a corner talking to himself.
A closer look revealed that he was in fact on his mobile telling friends & familly the good news. I asked him to turn the phone off & the fault cleared.
So they definitely do interfere. However the most likely result is what I observed, a system crash. In recent years there has been a very significant increase in items being sent for test because they "keep alarming". These almost always pass test with ease. I do wonder how many of these incidents may be induced by phones.
Also of concern to me are the major phone company systems being planted on hospital rooves as money earners, the cordless systems going into wards and those darned walkie-talkies security & portering carry.

Marc