[brian]

A visit to the hospital can be a daunting task, a cause for celebration or a much-dreaded affair.


Now, it can be productive, too.


A new wireless network at Salem Hospital has made the Internet available to patients, visitors and family members with portable computers or hand-held electronic devices.


Wireless Internet access, known as Wi-Fi, is the first stage in an advanced electronic-medical-records system that the hospital will develop during the next several years.


The system eventually will allow doctors and nurses to access patients' records without generating tons of paperwork.


Besides streamlining the process, it could make the process safer for caregivers and patients, said Dennis Sato, the chief information officer for Salem Hospital.


Doctors and nurses will be able to access patients' records from their bedsides. The hospital will use bar codes to identify the patient, nurse, doctor and medication.

Full Story: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps...606060320/1001

[firstaiddave907]

Oh wow thats really cool how the hosptail has wi-fi access so the doctors and nurses and pacietns can get internet access . I think that would be a good idea for all hosptails to have that so any one can get access to the internet.

[smilin_gp]

How neat... They seem to be an incredibly forward thinking and community-minded hospital. I had a management/leadership rotation there and sat in on quite a few meetings convincing me of such,

[Indy]

...and all I can think is that the patients' personal use system had better be completely separate from the hospital system.

[tvccrn]

This is news? Our hospital has had this available to the patients and families for at least the past two yhears that I know of.


Oh, and before that we had these laptops that the patients could borrow during their stay here to use.

tvccrn

[tomiku]

Cool! I always dreamed of having a high tech hospital to worked on someday! How I wish there is such here in our country!

[DeLySh]

How fantastic! What a wonderful way for the patients to pass the time while they are stuck in bed! I wish the hospital I was just in had this. I felt so disconnected from the rest of the world and wished I could at least email or surf.

Awesome!

DeLySh

[Roy Fokker]

Have a stress induced MI, land up at the hospital, pop open laptop and continue doing the same work that caused stress induced MI in the first place.....





Naw! I'm all for it.

HA! This also means that sick or healthy - y'all ain't gettin' rid of me

[crowlowl]

Originally Posted by firstaiddave907

Oh wow thats really cool how the hosptail has wi-fi access so the doctors and nurses and pacietns can get internet access . I think that would be a good idea for all hosptails to have that so any one can get access to the internet.

I work at a major hospital in portland, oregon and we have wi-fi....what's the deal? We have some rooms with a computer at every bedside. For the patient and family.