Hospital requiring personal cell phones for patient care

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Hi all!
My hospital has announced that we will be required to use our cell phones for patient care. This includes paging doctors, calling for assistance in rooms, and calling out in the event of an emergency. I work in labor and delivery and until recently we have always used wireless phones for these things - especially stat situations I.e baby in the bed, open the OR, calling for NICU, etc.

Are other people utilizing their cell phones for patient care, including stat situations? Can the hospital really force us to do that? Are they liable if my phone is damaged in a emergent situation? Looking for insight! I can’t believe it’s gone from no cell phones on the unit to everyone is required to have their cell phone on the unit ?

Under no circumstances would I comply with that only to get thrown under the bus later for actually going along with it. If they want me to use a cell, they would need to provide me with an assigned phone, as far as the hospital is concerned I do not have a cell. Unless they pay my phone bill it’s none of their GD business and they get no say in the matter.

On 7/16/2020 at 7:26 AM, caliotter3 said:

Whether I am at home or in my home health patient’s residence, or even in my car, my employers have expected me to use my personal cell phone, on or off duty to respond to their summons. This has gone on for many years now. Part of that beck and call mentality.

They expect it because nurses go along with their BS.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

There are smartphone apps used in healthcare to communicate between clinical staff and providers that are HIPAA-compliant. Our hospital uses Voalte Me which is one example of these apps. However, in our hospital nursing staff are provided older iPhone 6 smartphones that they carry during their shift that have the app pre-loaded. None of the nursing staff (or RT, Pharmacy, PT/OT/SLP) use their own personal smartphones for this. It's a different case for us providers however, some providers are fine using their own smartphone and have the app downloaded on their personal device.

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Oooh...how did I miss this?!

No and absolutely not.

I do not pay for a cell phone so that someone else can use it for their business purposes. I suppose they could pay the bill, but they won't and even if they would pay the "work-related" portion of my bill I'm not doing extra work to comb through prove what portion of the use was work related. They would make this as ridiculous as possible. No...this is all...entirely...on them.

I will also never put their apps on my phone. I don't access their networks with my personal devices while at work or home.

They have never done anything to prove that they won't take advantage and start pushing any and all limits according to what they believe is in their business interests. Corporate fantasies; It is beyond pathetic to propose that entry-level workers provide this portion of their business needs.

Although mostly on principle, I absolutely would quit over this.

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Specializes in mental health / psychiatic nursing.

NO absolutely not. RNs have unit land-lines, work cell phone, radios, and emergency/personal-alarms all of which can be used to summon assistance. As an NP, RNs on my team can call my land-line/desk phone or call/text my work-cell phone.

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Furthermore, I have found cell phones to be very unreliable. How many times has someone said they called me and I see absolutely nothing on my phone history? (Notwithstanding that they may be telling a lie about calling me). How many times has a text or call notification taken more than 24 hours to "appear"? How many times has a voicemail message disappeared into the ozone when I wanted to listen to it again? For emergencies? Ha! How many times has a call dropped on me if I made a connection at all to begin with? Far more reliable were wired landlines and hooked up answering machines. Maybe add a pager. At least they worked. One got something for their money.

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WOW!, smh. If it was me in your situation. I would tell admin to send smoke signals but my phone is just that, mine and I regulate it.

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Say what now?

Oh hell no! I'd request that new policy in writing then tell them no. It's not a fireable offense because it's an illegal request. This is one battle I would choose to fight.

I'd tell them no with a smile on my face because any adverse action is illegal. Type of ridiculous administration request is that? Hospitals are out of line and becoming increasingly ridiculous with their demands and borderline abuse....during an epidemic nonetheless. SMH

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Specializes in Operating room, ER, Home Health.

What if the service does not work in the hospital. Where I work once you get away from windows only one of the big carriers works.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.

Nope.

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Specializes in Labor and Delivery, High risk OB.

In my labor and delivery unit, everyone picks up a unit phone, signs in with our hospital ID and then utilizes it all shift for paging doctors, stats etc. you then hand off your phone to the oncoming nurse. We have extras, when the phones need to be charged. They only work on hospital WiFi so there is no use in stealing them.

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