Facilities in Ohio Start Offering Wireless Internet Access
The Beacon Journal reports how a few hospitals in Ohio have started offering wireless internet access over WiFi to patients and visitors. The community hospital in Wadsworth for instance started proposing free Internet access everywhere in its facility a few months ago while Akron General Medical Center just got started. While these hospitals were already using wireless networks to support the staff in its medical mission, extending service to patients is a more recent trend. They, and their visitors, appreciate the ability to keep connected to work or family, either to remain productive during a three-hour wait, or to endure a long stay in bed with something more interesting to do than watching TV.
Most patients do not seem to expect this service to be offered in hospitals but they are pleasantly surprised when they find out about it. It remains to be seen whether they will bypass sometimes expensive phone charges at hospitals by using free VOIP services (voice over the internet) such as Skype. Public internet access is generally provided over a separate network to reduce potential security breaches into medical records.
January 17, 2006 Related topics: Wireless, IT & software