SMS messaging in paging systems
Bosch launched a new paging system which automatically diverts paging calls to mobile phones, so that an SMS message can be sent.
Digital pagers, first introduced by Bosch in 1978, are now essential to hospital communications. However, hospital paging systems generally cannot reach members of staff when they are off duty, or even if they are on call but out of range, as can be the case for doctors working across a number of sites, and en route from one to the next.
Now, however, Bosch has launched a new system, the DP6000, which automatically diverts paging calls to mobile phones, so that an SMS message can be sent to alert key personnel during emergencies.
A hospital paging system consists of a central control desk and transmitter that can be equipped with up to 10,000 pagers. Pagers placed on a storage rack indicate that the owner is off duty or absent.
At the control desk the operator can call any receiver by picking a name from a list, or entering the page call code directly. Pocket sized and lightweight, pagers provide various combinations of bleep, vibration, speech, and numeric or alphanumeric display. They can receive real-time spoken messages, and users can scroll back through previously received information. There is also a ‘do-not disturb’ mode. Text messages can accompany the paging calls along with essential numeric information such as addresses, room numbers and phone numbers.
Paging systems offer considerable other versatility. For example, the Bosch paging system can be connected to external alarm systems for fire detection, or it can link into building control systems (for machine monitors, AC control or security), remote contacts (door switches, proximity devices) and Nurse Call. And now the firm’s the DP6000 enables SMS messages to be sent to staff who have stored their pagers in the rack. A hundred GSM mobiles can be programmed. The SMS messages can be pre-defined so users just point to the relevant message and click to send, or they can be customised. They can be displayed on any mobile phone or any pager with an alphanumeric display. The system is very versatile, and PCs connected to the hospital’s TCP/IP network can also use DP Client software to send messages to pagers.
Thus, when an emergency occurs in a ward, or multiple casualties arrive in an Accident & Emergency department, the various hospital personnel needed (surgeons, nurses, porters, etc.) - whether off duty or on call, can be sent paging and SMS messages to inform them which area or operating theatre to attend, without worrying that they are out of range.
01.03.2006
