Why do doctors still use pagers?

In various countries around the world including more developed countries its fairly common to see doctors and other medical staff in hospitals using pager. But with the rest of the world largely moving on from pagers in the 1990’s, why do hospital staff still use them and not just a regular cell phone? That’s what we’re going to have a look at in this video.

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One of the main reasons for staff to still use pagers in hospitals is they use a different frequency band than cell phones. Pagers use a much lower frequency band than phones do. Lower frequency signals are able to penetrate walls, floors and other obstructions more efficiently than higher frequency bands. This is especially useful in a hospital with many rooms, corridors and walls that higher frequency signals may struggle to penetrate. Some hospitals have sections underground and x ray rooms are often lined with lead for the protection of other staff and patients who spend extended periods of time nearby. It would be almost impossible for higher frequency signals used by cell phone to reach these underground or lead lined rooms whereas low frequency signals used by pagers can reach these areas with no issue. If a doctor in an xray room or underground area needed to be contacted for an emergency elsewhere in the hospital they would likely not be reachable if they were relying on a mobile phone, but with a pager they’d receive the message no problem.

A 2nd reason is battery life. Pagers are designed for low-power operation and typically only receive signals (rather than transmitting data like smartphones), they can function for extended periods on a single battery charge often up to 30 days. This long battery life ensures that doctors and medical staff can rely on their pagers without frequent recharging.

A final reason for still using pagers over cell phones is the range at which they can receive signals. Pager transmitters can operate at higher power levels providing extensive coverage from a single transmitter. This high power, combined with lower frequency bands, allows for wider coverage areas. A single high-power transmitter can cover up to 30 miles in ideal conditions. This means a hospital will only need one transmitter to cover a very large site.

Cellular networks on the other hand rely on a dense network of base stations (cell towers) to provide coverage. Each cell tower covers a relatively small area, especially in urban environments, where cells can be as small as a few hundred meters in radius. This means a hospital may need to build several cell towers on particularly large and built up sites if they wanted to rely on cell phones, adding a huge cost.

What do you think will eventually replace pagers in hospitals? Let me know down in the comments and please do subscribe if you’ve enjoyed this video and thanks for watching!

#pager #doctor #hospital

[techindex]

What do you think will eventually replace pagers in hospitals?

[mortlaursen]

I believe you miss the most important reasons.
1. You can build and own your own Pager transmitter tower. You can't own your own cell tower.
2. With pagers you buy and own the network, with a cell network you are relying on an outside enterty.

Why these facts are so important is that it means that during a natural disaster or, good forbid, a war, the hospital has a self contained communication system that can be kept powered by their own back up generators. Cell networks tend to fail in these scenarios.

I would even go as far as saying these are actually the main reason hospitals still use pagers

[notarussianbot]

I used to wear a watch that received email and SMS Text messages over the pager network. These watches are no longer made.

Advantages: I did not have to carry a cell phone, battery life was around a month, I received messages where cell phone coverage was spotty, and I could still receive messages in areas where cell phones must be turned off. (i.e. airplane mode).

[isunktitanic]

interesting! i never really thought about the wall penetration issue! however, if im a doctor in need of assistance, will my page not transmit the message? is messages only broadcast from a central transmitter?