Stephen Zintsmaster (@szintsmaster) tweeted
me this question:
“@Skepticscalpel - I
need some wisdom as a new 3rd yr. Y do they still use the damn pagers? This
will forever annoy me!”
Stephen, I believe there is still a use for pagers in
medicine. This question came up in some comments on one of my more popular
blogs called “What
happens when a doctor is paged.”
Chris Porter, a surgeon who has a popular blog called “OnSurg,” took
me to task by asking why my hospital still used pagers and hadn’t I heard about
cell phones?
I replied, “I don't know about your area, but where I
practice, cell phone service can be spotty. The hospital is one of the worst
places. Some cell phone carriers have little or no coverage. You can be in the
OR or radiology and have no bars on your phone. Since pagers work by radio,
there is no coverage problem. When cell phones are 100% reliable, let me know.”
I also pointed out to another commenter that when the nurses
have your cell phone number, they may call you when you’re not on call. This
has happened to me. When they have to look up your pager number, they seem more
likely to check the on call schedule.
To me, phone calls are also more intrusive and harder to
ignore. I was debriding a pressure sore in a patient's room the other day when my phone rang. Because I was wearing gloves, I
couldn’t hit “Ignore” and it went on for 30 seconds. A
pager stops beeping after just a few seconds.
Dr Roy Arnold, who tweets as @Cholerajoe, pointed out that another reason to use pagers is that there may be one pager for the on call doc that gets handed off when call changes. Nurses know to always call the same number.
Update 7/10/2012. Dr. Mary L. Brandt (@drmlb) tweeted a link to a blog that describes the history of the pager and another important reason we still use them--the "group page" for codes. The blog also mentions some new ideas for eliminating the pager.
Dr Roy Arnold, who tweets as @Cholerajoe, pointed out that another reason to use pagers is that there may be one pager for the on call doc that gets handed off when call changes. Nurses know to always call the same number.
Update 7/10/2012. Dr. Mary L. Brandt (@drmlb) tweeted a link to a blog that describes the history of the pager and another important reason we still use them--the "group page" for codes. The blog also mentions some new ideas for eliminating the pager.
Bottom line: I know in some areas, doctors are happy to
completely rely on cell phones. This has not worked for me.
