????全球聞名的Alta Bates Summit醫(yī)療中心位于加州伯克利，它的4,500名員工中有1,000人配有尋呼機(jī)。佩戴尋呼機(jī)已成為他們工作的一部分，就像穿著外科制服和戴著塑膠手套一樣。薩特醫(yī)療集團(tuán)旗下?lián)碛斜姸噌t(yī)院，特里?施萊辛格是這家公司東灣分區(qū)的電信部經(jīng)理。她對尋呼機(jī)已被歷史拋棄等說法頗為不滿。她將尋呼機(jī)稱為“員工日常使用的通訊工具之一。”施萊辛格說：“當(dāng)然，每個人都想只使用一種通訊工具，但實際工作并非如此。”

????手機(jī)信號有時無法穿通高大的混凝土建筑，醫(yī)院就是其中之一。而且，一旦遇到地震等突發(fā)事件，手機(jī)很可能會無法接通。尋呼機(jī)就不一樣了，它對技術(shù)的依賴要小得多。事實上，醫(yī)院仍然將可靠性視為繼續(xù)使用尋呼機(jī)的最大理由。畢竟，醫(yī)生絕不能容忍漏接重要電話，人命關(guān)天啊。

????除了尋呼機(jī)，Alta Bates還在使用一種名為Vocera的私有內(nèi)部通訊網(wǎng)。員工們把一種和智能手機(jī)很像的設(shè)備別在衣服上，或者掛在脖子上。他們要做的就是按下按鈕，激活設(shè)備，說出自己想聯(lián)系的同事的姓名（語音識別技術(shù)會進(jìn)行查找），然后等待回應(yīng)即可。

????Alta Bates沒為員工配備智能手機(jī)。但很多人會帶自己的手機(jī)來上班。施萊辛格稱，這家醫(yī)院正在設(shè)法改善院內(nèi)的手機(jī)信號。

????分析師稱，信號接收問題相對容易解決，而且這方面已經(jīng)有好幾年的經(jīng)驗。一種辦法是在設(shè)施內(nèi)安裝所謂的蜂窩網(wǎng)絡(luò)。它本質(zhì)上是私人手機(jī)網(wǎng)絡(luò)，以保證難以接收到信號的地方也能被覆蓋到。這樣，就不一定非得依靠最近的手機(jī)信號塔來提供網(wǎng)絡(luò)覆蓋。

????一般而言，F(xiàn)rost＆Sullivan分析師布倫特?拉達(dá)若拉稱，醫(yī)院在采用新技術(shù)方面往往行動緩慢。數(shù)字化病歷也是一項出現(xiàn)了很久的技術(shù)，但很多醫(yī)院一直到現(xiàn)在才開始使用這項技術(shù)。拉達(dá)若拉補(bǔ)充說，醫(yī)院在采用智能手機(jī)方面動作也很遲緩。拉達(dá)若拉說：“現(xiàn)在還在使用尋呼機(jī)簡直就跟活在中世紀(jì)一樣。” （財富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：項航

????At Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, in Berkeley, Calif., 1,000 out of 4,500 employees have pagers. Carrying one is as much a part of the job as wearing surgical scrubs and plastic gloves. Teri Schlessinger, telecommunications manager for the East Bay region of Sutter Health, the hospital's parent, disputed any suggestion that pagers are relics of the past. Instead, she called them just one of several communications tools employees use. "Certainly, everyone would like to just be able to depend on one device, but we can't do that," Schlessinger says.

????Cell phone signals don't necessarily reach the bowels of big concrete buildings like hospitals. Moreover, during emergencies like earthquakes, cell phone service can get overloaded. Pagers, it turns out, are far less prone to such technical problems. In fact, hospitals still cite their comparative reliability as their reason for continuing to use the technology. After all, doctors can't afford missing important calls. Patient lives are at stake.

????In addition to pagers, a private internal communication system, called Vocera, plays a key role in communications at Alta Bates. Employees are given devices resembling smartphones that they clip to their clothes or dangle from their necks. All they have to do is press a button to activate the device, say the name of the colleague they want to reach (voice recognition technology looks them up), and then wait to be connected.

????Alta Bates does not give smartphones to staff. Nevertheless, many people bring their personal phones to work. Schlessinger said the hospital is looking at ways to improve cell phone reception in the hospital.

????Reception problems are relatively easy to solve and have been for years, analysts say. One option is setting up what are called mesh networks, essentially private cell phone networks, inside facilities to guarantee coverage in hard-to-reach places. Relying on the nearest cell phone tower to provide coverage is unnecessary.

????In general, hospitals tend to be slow in adopting new technologies, says Brent Iadarola, another analyst with Frost & Sullivan. Digital medical records are another technology that has long been available, but many hospitals are only just now switching to them. With smartphones, the shift is similarly delayed, he adds. "To still be in the pager environment is to be in the Dark Ages," Iadarola says.