Illustration by
Malcolm Garris/PhotoDisc

by Michelle Lau
November 5, 1998

Everyone seems to have a pager these days, from waiters to CEOs. Now nurses, too, are part of the trend.

But while most people agree that the age-old bedside intercom systems irritate patients and diminish privacy, some nurses dislike certain beeper features and feel the systems create distractions and interruption of their own.

In the last three years, pagers have become the communication mode of choice for hospitals, said Fred Passafiume, sales representative for Zettler Systems Inc. in Aliso Viejo, Calif., a company specializing in nurse call systems and pagers. Passafiume said pagers add efficiency and typically replace cumbersome call systems.

Theresa Mathews, MSN, RN, clinical nurse specialist and charge nurse at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, uses pagers manufactured by JTECH Communications Inc. in Boca Raton, Fla. Typically the alphanumeric pagers are used to communicate during medical emergencies, such as mobilizing the trauma team or responding to a child in cardiac or respiratory arrest. "It gets you the people you need in a timely fashion and gives you a tidbit of information while you’re being paged," said Mathews, who also likes the fact that pagers provide confidentiality for patients because their needs are not announced over an intercom.

Peggy Utter, sales representative at JTECH, said about 800 hospitals nationwide have purchased JTECH’s nurse pager systems and the trend toward using pagers for communicating patient needs to nurses is growing. Utter estimates it costs $4,000 to install the JTECH pager system in an average-sized hospital.

Wide range of pagers available

There are a wide range of nurse/patient communication systems available, including infant alarms and systems for wandering patients. JTECH markets alphanumeric computer-based pagers, numeric pagers used with a phone message system, and a base unit transmitter pager that signals the nurse through a system of beeps or vibrations with no message transmitted.

However, some nurses find using pagers frustrating. Marjorie Boyd, RN, a women’s health generalist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said she’s hearing nurses complain that the pagers are a source of stress and less convenient than the time-tested—but nosy—intercom systems of the past. "It can really get on your nerves," Boyd said. "No matter where you are—even in the bathroom—you can be paged." Boyd said she dislikes being beeped when she is in the middle of doing patient teaching or talking with a patient. But such interruptions may not be avoidable with any communications system, some nurses say.

Some pagers are equipped with sensors to allow managers, staff, and physicians to locate a particular nurse when needed. The sensors also keep the pager beeping until the nurse enters the room a patient is calling from. The sensor tied to the beeper is what is annoying. "If we just had the beepers, we could see our message, and it wouldn’t keep beeping," Boyd said.

Updating systems

Linda Burnes Bolton, DrPh, RN, FAAN, vice president and chief nursing officer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said the pagers were instituted to replace a 26-year-old call-light system that was showing signs of inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Focus groups with staff and patients identified a host of problems with the intercom system, including an inability to triage requests well, an inability to notify the person who could meet a patient’s specific needs, and an inability to locate particular individuals when a physician, colleague, or manager wanted to talk with them.

Burnes Bolton said the pager system, now in place for about a year, has improved the Cedar’s patient call-light responsiveness and the hospital has seen a 30 percent improvement in patient satisfaction since the system was implemented. It has also decreased the need to intercom page or ask patients repeated questions, and the alphanumeric pager-sensor system allows nurses to make priority assessments of patients request, she said. The hospitals’ registered nurses, LVNs, and nursing assistants wear the pagers.

"As with any technology, getting accustomed to it has taken time," Burnes Bolton said. "But the benefit far outweighs the nuisance associated with wearing an additional badge."

Previous Stories

Has your company's soul been sold?

Little Women
Louisa May Alcott writes about her experiences as a nurse

Are netizens really
that sad?
A new study questions the Internet's impact on its users.

Assisted Suicide

Hotel Health
Dial room service for a nurse or a physician

To be or not to be
in the ER?
Should families be allowed in the ER