Question for anyone who works in a hospital environment

[SBL110]

Hi Everyone,

Our hospital recently recorded an injury by a doctor who got tangled in a patient's phone cord. Three cracked ribs and a minor head wound later, I was called upon to address the situation somehow.

We've considered cordless phones in our patient rooms but have disqualified them because they are battery operated devices. Keeping them charged would be a problem, not to mention loss due to theft or misplacement. Getting consistent product to replace units that break down is probably impossible; I doubt I could find the same model phone six months after deploying. Have also considered retractable cords, but they aren't user friendly -- the coils are too tight and cause tangles.

Anyway, was wondering if you could share how your patient phones are set up? Analog, digital, IP, corded, cordless, etc. Just looking for some ammunition to present to the Safety Council regarding best practices -- or most common practices in this case.

Any suggestions welcome. One thought was to replace the line cords with bright orange ones to stand out against the tile floor making them more visible. Who knows?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Scott

 

[AMGTEKIII]

We always used white, but I have NEVER heard of any one never mind a DOCTOR being so stupid and clumbsy to trip and hurt themselves like that!!!!!

 

[SBL110]

Thanks AMGTEKIII. I won't comment on the doctor's coordination, we're just glad it wasn't a visitor of the patient -- come to think of it, that would be one way to raise the census.

 

[SF0751]

I recently had a short hospital stay - the (white, corded, analog) phone was on table-top on the far side of the room, away from the potential position of any hospital staff.

Susan
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison

 

[mikeydidit]

We use regular 2500 desk sets in most areas. We have a small table that fits between the beds and we feed the cable/jack behind that. We do limit the hand set cords to the normal length 12(short cords) and the same for the station cords 7'.

In our L&D and a few other area's we use the Med-Pat type phones. These basically area a disposable type phone that lies in the bed with them. The part number for them if you need it is XL-301 if you care to look at them. If you haven't seen any of them they are a big buttoned phone, lighted dial pad, and of course your company logo for around $6.00. They do hold up fairly well for the price.

Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.
Thomas A. Edison

For the best response to a question, read faq690-6594

 

[rickrhodes]

We have always used the MedPat analog phones but when we built our new East Tower we created a customer focus group that looked at how to improve many services to our patients. The telephone was one of the identified services and after several trials using cordless, digital and IP the decision was the MedPat analog phone. This decision was based on the same reasons from the above mikeydidit post and the fact that so many of them are destroyed "throw-away" every month.
When SIP gets down in price we will look at this again.