Cellphones at the Hospital: A Clean Bill of Health
At restaurants and the movies, it's a question of courtesy; on airplanes and at hospitals, it's been one of safety. But according to a new study published in the current Mayo Clinic Proceedings, using a cellphone at the hospital won't pose a risk to patients.
The Mayo study looked at cellphone use in such equipment-rich areas as the intensive care unit, echocardiography lab, and the pulmonary ventricular rehabilitation unit. Two types of Nokia phones were tested at varying radio frequency levels in 75 hospital rooms, where patients were depending on feeding pumps, ECG monitors, and external pacemakers, for example. After 300 tests, the researchers found no evidence that cellphones interfered with the life-saving machinery. (Two areas not tested: the operating room and the pediatric intensive care unit.)
"At this point in time, it's safe for both patients and family members" to use cellphones, says David Hayes, the study's lead researcher and chair of the cardiovascular division at the Mayo Clinic. Hayes says he thinks hospitals ought to revise their cellphone-use policies–but keep in mind the next time you visit that the current rules may still stand.
advertisement
