back to article Adelaide hospital rolls out RFID tagging

Visionstream will deploy a AUD$71 million ICT solution for the Royal Adelaide Hospital that is aimed to integrate government development on high end data services with actual health care provision. The project will provide the hospital with 150 Terabits per second of switching capacity and new technology platforms including …

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  1. Magani
    Linux

    Why do I...

    ...keep getting this vision of a recently 'dearly departed' on a gurney with an RFID tag stuck to their big toe?

  2. Bill Posters
    Coat

    New use for RFID

    Double beep as patient leaves hospital..

    "Nurse! Stop that patient!

    He's smuggling out a clamp and a swab, internally!"

  3. LAGMonkey
    WTF?

    So then why is it...

    If the hospital can spend this amount of money on WIRELESS equipment and then use said equipment in the hospital, I am not allowed to use my WIRELESS equipment (Read as Mobile phone) in the building for fear it would interfere with the medical equipment.

    Is this a case of mobile phones on airplanes? And as for the power requirements, surely you can just bung in some pico-cells to limit the mobile phones power output. And shouldn't the medical equipment be build to accept said emissions?

    Anyone care to shed some light on the matter?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So then why is it...

      The difference is they are purchasing that wireless equipment, choosing the wireless equipment so that it does not interfere, and have largely full control of that wireless equipment.

      You as a consumer choose where to purchase your personal wireless equipment, which could be a local operator, or perhaps a grey market import. There is no guarantee that it meets any given standards regarding EMC, either due to unscrupulous quality control, or a subtle fault causing undesired emissions.

      I've seen "CE" marked kit wipe out VHF radio communications. I've heard part of a CD player click away like a geigercounter in the presence of a 433MHz transmitter -- both devices allegedly compliant with EMC directives.

      The fact is, if it's their equipment, it's their problem, they can deal with it however they wish. Rather than have the possibility of some life-critical piece of equipment malfunction, they simply ask you to turn off your mobile phone. Yes, it's an inconvenience, but who wants to take the risk?

    2. -tim
      Flame

      Re: So then why is it...

      You know that noise that your cheap phone causes when it is next to speakers and rings? That is why your phone can't be used in hospitals and airplanes. Most of the time the noise isn't a problem but it is much harder to get everyone to turn off their phones on a plane when only a few are on rather than every single one of them. Besides who wants to be next to people talking on the phone all the time.

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