US Doctors Want Mobile Phones In Hospitals Too

from the old-myths dept

While we've already written about doctors in the UK saying hospital bans on mobile phones should be dropped it appears that there's a similar movement in the US. Healthcare officials are starting to call the ban a "myth," an "old wives' tale" and "a silly thing." Some, though, are still worried, and claim anecdotal evidence that mobile phones can interfere with equipment -- despite increasing evidence that it's very specific, more reasonably blocked, circumstances that would cause the interference. In fact, some are saying that allowing mobile phones in hospitals would do much more to save lives, noting how many deaths there are due to prescription mistakes that might be solved by a simple, quick phone call in the hospital -- while also pointing out that "there is no evidence that a cell phone has ever killed a patient."