TECHTALK Messages for 1999: Q(tm)Phone-The good, the bad, and the disappointing

Q(tm)Phone-The good, the bad, and the disappointing

From: Edward M. Zabrek, M.D., FACOG

stork@flash.net

Sun, 25 Jan 1998 23:54:07 +0000

First, as I stated last week, it is imperative that you have at least one extra battery with you, just in case you run out of juice. I made that mistake last week. While at my office, I realized that I forgot my extra battery at home. This would normally not be a major problem, that is, unless you get an emergency, you can't go home, and your only battery goes dead. This is what happened to me. I remembered that the voice mail would still work without the phone being "live", and I could use the rapid charger, charge my battery, and check the voice mail, every 15 minutes or so. This worked well enough, but not something I would like to do everyday. The solution: Have 3 batteries, 2 chargers and a car charging cord. If you always keep one battery charging and have one at home, one in your office (or wherever you are), and one on your phone. If one goes down, just replace it with a fresh one, and charge up the dying one. This phone does not have the longest battery life of the digital phones because of its small size. Qualcomm promises a longer life battery for the Q(tm)Phone in the next month or so. Even with this, I would still recommend 3 batteries and a car cord.

The next problem is of greater concern. The Q(tm)Phone would not function in the O.R. I never answer my pages when I am scrubbed. I always tell pertinent groups (L&D, E.R., my office, etc.) where I will be and to call the O.R. directly for emergencies. I used the voice mail feature for all other calls. There were also problems with reception while on the elevator, and areas deep in the hospital. At these times, I would either lose signal completely, or have the signal break up when I was on the phone. Another potential problem is some hospitals do not allow the use of cellular phones inside the hospital building. (Check with your hospital to find out their policy.) The Q(tm)Phone and other CDMA phones operate at 1900 mhz, and the providers are trying to get hospitals give them an exception, claiming that this frequency does not interfere with any hospital equipment (like analog phones can). I spoke with PrimeCo, and they state that they are aware of this problem, and claim that they cannot guarantee "inside coverage". Steel and cement can interfere with the signal strength. These phones were designed for the road, and work is currently being done to increase penetration to accommodate the transmission signal for inside building use. Solution?: 1. Check with you local digital service carrier. Ask how their inside building reception is. Carriers should give you a 30 day, money back trial on serve and equipment. See how it works in your facility. 2. Check with your hospital to see if they have any rules regarding the use of cell phones. If they do not allow them, unless you can get them the data to convince them to change their policy, you will be out of luck to be able to use the Q(tm)Phone alone, until they do. You could still use a simple numeric pager ($6.00/mo), and change your voice mail greeting when your phone is out. (Remember your voice mail will still work.) This will also work if you are in the O.R., or are going to be in a building where coverage will not reach. (Note: I have had many pagers that did not work in the O.R. Once again, this depends on your paging service provider.)

I will be researching these issues further, and keep you updated as I get more information. I would appreciate any feedback from any of you regarding your individual hospitals, and digital service providers. Please e mail (stork@flash.net) me your response to the following questions: 1. Do(es) your hospital(s) allow the use of cellular phones inside the building? [ ] yes [ ] no

2. Does your digital service provider claim good coverage inside large buildings? [ ] yes [ ] no. Name of digital service provider______________.

3. In what city and state do you practice?

Thanks for your help.

At this point, I still highly recommend the Q(tm)Phone, and will continue to use it as my primary communicator. I will keep you posted on future developments, good and bad, and let you know the results of the above poll.

use when must restrict search to only the tech talk forum...
Enter search keywords:
	Returns per screen: Require all keywords: