Cellphone A$$hat!

[Zinjadu]

I had to be at the hospital by 8 am for a cortisone shot in my shoulder.

Around 7:45 I'm sitting there waiting to be called, and I hear a guy's voice talking. Then I hear him say: I probably shouldn't be on my cell in here, but who cares. He finally hung up from that call, then I heard him start up again: I just checked my messages and wanted to let you know I'm at the hospital waiting to have my shoulder looked at... blah blah blah...

There was a huge sign at the desk that said TURN OFF YOUR CELL PHONE PLEASE! WTF was with this guy?? Too important to do that? I so wanted to tell him that if he didn't hang up the f'n phone NOW that he'd be needing to book a procedure to have it removed from his rectum! Grrrr.

He ended up in the same treatment room to see the same Dr I was seeing, and he kept pulling the phone out of his pocket and looking at it even while he was sitting on the bed! Some people...

[Skandranon]

They have those signs in hospitals for good reason, too. Cell phones signals can interrupt some of the more delicate equipment.

[mariamousie1]

The reason you're not supposed to use cell phones in hospitals is because the signals can affect life-support systems. I wonder if that guy knew that? He's an idiot either way.

[Antisocial_Worker]

Not too many weeks ago I had to spend about 8 hours straight sitting around in a hospital waiting room while my father had foot surgery. During that time I counted no fewer than four people blabbing away on cell phones despite a sign that clearly said they weren't allowed. The worst part was that one of the cell phone yakkers was dressed in nursing scrubs. She was doubly obnoxious because her conversation was loud enough to let the rest of us know that she was not happy about being so late for work because the procedure was taking so long.

[Sientara]

The reason you're not supposed to use cell phones in hospitals is because the signals can affect life-support systems. I wonder if that guy knew that? He's an idiot either way.

At the hospital I work at, we only ban cell phones in certain areas (Critical Care Unit and the Cardiovascular Care Unit). Cell phones only interfere with equipment at short range. We also house a cell tower on top of one of our buildings. I suspect that the ban is more for the ease of the enforcement and to keep the volume down for the patients. Just don't expect a constant signal when passing through Radiology.

[draggar]

Cell phones are the best and the worst invention ever.

The icing on the cake would be if the guy ever needed life support but he needed to take a call, his call interfered with his life support, thus ending his lift.

Hello, Darwin?

[tollbaby]

gee, and my first thought was, "HELLO doofus, maybe your shoulder's messed up because YOU'RE ALWAYS ON THE DAMNED PHONE!!!!"

[AFpheonix]

Well the equipment thing, but cell phones are generally frowned upon in hospitals also because of the potential for a HIPAA violation. But...some people just flat out don't care.

[Myra]

Well the equipment thing, but cell phones are generally frowned upon in hospitals also because of the potential for a HIPAA violation. But...some people just flat out don't care.

99% of cellphones made today don't operate on a frequency which will hurt any sort of medical equipment. This was true back in the day, but yeah, mostly cells are banned because of HIPAA. They leave up the signs declaring cells will interfere with equipment figuring people would be more likey to pay attention to them. Obviously, it doesn't work.

But anywho. That's the cellphone geek in me. I'm done now.

[zzapp the witch]

Cell phones don't interfere with equipment anymore than they kill bees.

[MadMike]

Cell phones don't interfere with equipment anymore than they kill bees.

But they can kill bees if you smack them with the phone.

[Banrion]

Cell phones don't interfere with equipment anymore than they kill bees.

But they can kill bees if you smack them with the phone.

And cell phones CAN interfere with some equipment if the sheilding around the equipment is damaged. Heck an atomic sync wristwatch CAN interfere with the equipement if the shielding is damaged. I suspect, the policies are in place as a better safe than sorry deal.

[CrazedClerk]

Part of is that many hospital staffers are already hugely overburdened with work and probably don't have much time or energy to spare enforcing a cell phone ban.

[Ljt09863]

when i was at the hospital this past week, we were on a floor that allowed cell phone usage, which was awesome, since i was in a different area code so i wasn't able to make any phone calls from the room phone. but after my sons surgery, they allowed me to go back to see him(they said only one person, and my fiancee let me go thankfully) and before we got back into the recovery room, the nurse kept asking me if i had my cell turned off all the way, which it was. there were quite a few signs over most of the hospital(again, except the floor we were on) saying no cell phones. although, i did see one lady chatting on her cell while on a no cell phone floor....thank god my child wasn't hooked up to something that was keeping him alive. he was breathing on his own and everything.

regardless if you thnk cell phones do or do not interrupt anything(and i don't know about any studies, and im not saying anybody is wrong), if you see a sign that says "NO CELL PHONES because they interrupt with sensitive equipment" you shouldn't be on your cell phone. if you don't believe they will interrupt, others may, and if it is their child on life support or something, it will be more comforting not to see somebody chatting on their cell phone. then again, if you see a sign that says "no cell phones", you shouldn't be on a cell period

[JustADude]

Cell phones don't interfere with equipment anymore than they kill bees.

But they can kill bees if you smack them with the phone.

And cell phones CAN interfere with some equipment if the sheilding around the equipment is damaged. Heck an atomic sync wristwatch CAN interfere with the equipement if the shielding is damaged. I suspect, the policies are in place as a better safe than sorry deal.

Awww, and here I was hoping someone would say 'And cell phones can interfere with delicate equipment if you throw them hard enough'. Ah well, guess that's why I'm here, to say these things.