A strong cellular signal is important to almost everyone. Whether you’re on a road trip, at home, or at work, dropping calls can create several problems. In hospitals, reliable cellular signal is even more important both to care for patients and the work environment. Some patients may need to call friends or relatives, and when cellular service is poor, this may not be possible. Find out how to improve cellular signals in hospitals to prevent poor service in yours.
Reasons For Poor Reception
Like many other large buildings, dropped calls are a common occurrence in hospitals due to the materials the buildings are made out of. These materials affect cellular signal strength. Some of the most common building materials for hospitals are concrete, brick, and steel because all three are sturdy. Unfortunately, while these materials are strong, they make it harder for your phone to communicate with the nearest cellular tower.
Another common reason for poor reception is your location. Getting a good signal isn't easy if the hospital is far from the nearest tower or surrounded by certain terrains—namely lush forests and mountains.
Pro Tip:
Although building materials and location are the typical culprits for your dropped calls in a hospital, this isn’t always the case. Ask around and make sure you’re not the only one experiencing the problem since a damaged phone also struggles to make calls.
Why Is Good Signal Necessary?
You may wonder why good cell coverage is necessary for hospitals. Doctors and nurses can use pagers to communicate with one another, and patients can use the landline phones in their room to make calls. The problem is, in a hospital, immediate communication is key. In an emergency, doctors and nurses need to contact one another and act quickly.
A reliable cellular signal is also important because:
Employees sometimes need internet access for their job, which may mean using data.
There’s less room for medical errors and accessing patient files is easier.
It keeps the hospital technology updated, which attracts employees.
While it is true that doctors and nurses use pagers and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to communicate, neither are always efficient. Cell phones are becoming more commonly used in hospitals because they’re easier to use and more reliable. However, cellphones are just as inefficient if dropped calls are a common occurrence in your hospital. End dropped calls with a cellular booster!
Benefits of a Cellular Signal Booster
A cellular signal booster is a solution to poor cellular signals in your hospital. This piece of technology works with an outdoor cellular antenna, an indoor antenna, or an amplifier. If you’re not sure where to get started, a team member at SureCall Boosters would be happy to assist. A lot goes into finding the right cellphone booster, but as industry experts, we can help guide you in the right direction.
Outdoor cellular antenna. This captures the current signal. You should install it in the outdoor area with the strongest signal.
Amplifier. This amplifies the weak signal and boosts it before sending it to the indoor antenna.
Indoor antenna. This broadcasts the amplified signal in the building. Place it where you need the strongest signal.
These three components all work together to capture, enhance, and rebroadcast your signal so your phone can easily communicate with the nearest tower.
Keep in mind that you’ll need a commercial cellular booster and several indoor antennas for a hospital or other large building. Investigate all your options and choose what’s best for your building, depending on your situation. For instance, if you need a booster because of an issue with distance, then the outdoor antenna you need may not be the same as what you’d buy when the issue is solely with building material.
Benefits To Staff
By improving cellular signals in your hospital, you help all staff members enhance two-way communication. When there’s an emergency, nurses may need to contact doctors or other healthcare professionals quickly.
Staff also benefit by having:
Reliable cross-department and doctor-patient communication.
An improved work department with modern technology.
Quicker access to patient files on hand-held devices.
Since a cellular signal booster enhances communication between your phone and the nearest tower, it improves more than call quality, and it speeds up data rates. By using a work cellphone, doctors and nurses can pull up patient files. When you’re relying on Wi-Fi for this, you may face slow speeds. But if you instead use cellular data, you don’t have to worry about the Wi-Fi connection.
Benefits To Patients and Visitors
Better communication means better patient care, so when you make it easy for your staff to contact one another, you also ensure all patients are well taken care of. But patients also receive two significant benefits:
Easy access to test results.
Quick access to the internet.
While quick and easy access to test results helps nurses and doctors detect and treat medical problems, it also helps patients understand what’s wrong. Furthermore, quick access to the internet assists patients in a few ways. Some may need to look things up, especially if they don’t understand a procedure or have a language barrier.
Easy access to the internet and their phone also helps keep a patient comfortable. Being in the hospital is stressful for patients, but you ease some of this by keeping them satisfied. Also, some may want to use their phone to contact loved ones or to entertain themselves.
Improving communication in your hospital is essential to making sure patients receive the care they need. And knowing how to improve cellular signals in hospitals is one way to get started. First, detect the reason for the poor signal. Typically, this occurs in hospitals because of building materials but can also occur because of distance.
Contact SureCall Boosters to find the best cellular booster to buy for your hospital! Once you've improved the cellular signal with a booster, staff have an easier time communicating across departments, which also helps increase patient care. Similarly, both patients and visitors have easier access to the internet as they use their phones. Improve the cellular signal in your hospital with a cellular booster!
If you’re not sure which booster to order, contact us at 1-888-389-5799. We’re here to help!
