Wireless pagers help families in waiting rooms

MESA, Ariz. (Oct. 5, 2010) -- New wireless pagers at Banner Heart Hospital now offer families in waiting rooms the chance to move more freely around the hospital while waiting for news about their loved ones.

The pagers are similar to the kind used in restaurants to notify patrons that an open table is available. They’re especially helpful for visitors whose loved one is undergoing a lengthy surgery or medical procedure.

Visitors can take the pager with them anywhere in the hospital or Banner Baywood Medical Center, to be paged when a physician needs to update them on the patient's progress.

“This also saves time for the doctors, which ultimately means shorter wait times for patients,” says Kristen Richards, director of cardiac services at Banner Heart. “Doctors previously came out to speak with families in the waiting room, only to find they had stepped away, which meant they had to track them down or wait until they returned.”

The Emergency department at Banner Baywood will also soon begin using the pagers, which are made by HME Wireless.

When activated, the pagers light up and vibrate for about two minutes to notify visitors that it’s time to return for an update. The system can be used to give alerts when a patient’s surgery has ended, for example, or when a patient is being moved to a different area of the hospital.

The pagers often are more reliable than cell phones, since they don’t rely on cell phone towers that are unable to reach some areas of the medical campus. The transmitter for the pager is in the hospital, while cell phone towers may be several miles away, depending on the service provider.

Banner Heart has 30 of the pagers and the Emergency Department will have 20 of them available for visitors.