Why the use of mobile phone prohibited in hospitals:
Ever since the introduction of mobile (cellular) phones, there have been concerns that the signals emitted by these phones may hamper with electronic medical equipment such as monitors and infusion pumps, a phenomenon known as electromagnetic interference (EMI). The use of mobile phones in the hospital and consequently, communication within hospitals has never progressed far beyond ordinary telephone landlines and one-way pagers.
Some of the places that you should never use your mobile phone
such as in hospitals or in public places. Hospitals have a lot of electronic devices that monitor patient’s heartbeats and other thing when they are getting surgery or when they are recovering from an illness. When electromagnetic waves try to go through them, the devices sometimes stop working. You can imagine how bad that would be for doctors and nurses in hospitals who are trying to save lives. That’s why we should never use mobile phones inside of a hospital
Any communications system within the hospital must achieve certain objectives such as low latency, high reliability, data security, and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). As ordinary pagers are passive, non-transmitting devices, they cannot generate significant EMI and thus have no EMC problems. Data security is also not at risk as the content of the message is delivered via regular hospital telephone lines and is difficult to intercept. In addition, reliability is extremely high as the signal strength is strong throughout all areas of a hospital. With these advantages, it is easy to see why the numeric pager/landline combination has been the tool of choice for intra-hospital communications for decades. However, the pager is often less than ample when it comes to latency issues
The ideal solution would be a fully integrated system, using multiple wireless technologies such as Bluetooth, wireless LAN, short-range wireless phones as well as traditional telephones..
Although cellular phones were completely banned in the University Health Network in 1994, the policy was changed in early 2000 to restrict the use of mobile phones to areas outside patient care wards. He indicated that while analog devices have been known to cause interference problems, digital devices appear to be safe to use, although they will most likely remain restricted to use outside patient care areas until they have been proven to be safe. His vision of the future of intra-hospital communications involves a single, integrated device that combines the mobile phone, pager, wireless e-mail and personal organizer, using high frequency, low power, wireless technology that would be available as a consumer electronics item.
Unfortunately, such a device is not yet available, and although technologically feasible, it might be very cost- prohibitive. While it is likely that such devices will one day be issued to hospital staff much the same way as pagers are now, it is equally clear that this is unlikely to be realized in the immediate future. Given the low purchase and usage costs, the lack of substantial risk to patients’ well being, the present availability, and the incredible streamlining of intra-hospital communications that would result, single-band, digital-only cellular phones should be considered as a practical replacement to the antiquated pagers and landline system.