Hospitals have long been users of radios for one good reason; it solves their logistics issues by allowing personnel to find each other as people move around the property. Most hospitals have enough places for employees to work or hide that it is imperative that there is some way to find them. Radio is THE solution to the challenge.
When configuring a radio system, one must identify the coverage needs before a system is selected. The following questions need to be answered:
- Is the hospital / medical facility larger than an area that can be covered with simplex radios?
- Are there multiple facilities?
- Is there a need to talk between multiple facilities?
- Do company personnel roam between facilities and require communications while roaming?
- Is there a need for multiple talk groups?
- Is there a need for company personnel to be able to be reached by radio while at home or while traveling around Southern California?
If the answer to any of these questions is maybe or yes, then it may make sense to have a system connected to our Diga-talk network. Our network provides excellent coverage at your manufacturing facility by us installing a network node at your facilities. This will facilitate the following:
- Solid communications within your facility with a Diga-Talk local site
- Solid communications within your other facility with another Diga-Talk site
- Reliable communications between your facilities
- Reliable communications for your personnel while at home in most areas
Unlike cellular devices, it is completely legal to use two-way radios while driving so that you are not subject to fines and liability for use of cellular phones while driving. This allows you to stay in contact with your field personnel, delivery truck fleet or any other personnel who are off site.
Using a cellular phone is not a good solution to the issues presented by the manufacturing industry because of the following:
- State law prohibits the use of handheld electronic devices while driving which include cellular telephones unless connected to a Bluetooth or other hands free device. Hands free devices do not work well in environments that have background noise like in the cab of a truck, bus or other large vehicle.
- The initial cost of smart phones is high and the reliability is low
- Cellular phones often need to be rebooted
- Missed calls end up going to voice mail which significantly delays message throughput
- Cellular phones almost always fail during a major emergency
- Cellular systems become instantly overloaded during a major emergency
- It takes too long to dial, wait for the phone to ring and receive an answer compared to Push-To-Talk with two-way radio.
- Only 2-3 people can discuss an issue at the same time with cellular. With two-way radio, any size group of people can be part of the same conversation.
Radio is the solution to coordinating groups of people that are working on a common project. Keeping the facility running is paramount because when the hospital is not functioning, patients care is delayed, patient health is jeopardized and profits take a nose dive. Many hospitals have switched to digital two-way radio because the digital provides them with significant benefits that cannot be duplicated with analog radios.
Most (but not all) hospitals have a need for more than one talk group. As an example, administration is on one talk group, hospital maintenance on another talk group, IT service is on a third talk group, security on a fourth talk group, etc. These days, security has become a big issue at hospitals due to an epidemic of safety issues. (The hospital must care for the sick and injured while protecting staff, visitors and patients.) When the facility is larger than what can be reliably covered with simplex radios, a repeater would need to be installed for each talk group with conventional radios. This can be cost prohibitive for many reasons and may have significant co-channel interference. We can provide you with your own system that is subject to all the issues of conventional radio, but it will not work as well as having our Diga-Talk network.
In many healthcare facilities, a central dispatch is often required. MRA dba Raycom has many solutions that will significantly enhance your central dispatch. Products such as RadioPro which provides a centralized dispatch, add many key features such as call logging and voice recording and can allow your key personnel to access to your radio system from their cellular phone. Application Focus on Healthcare
All these needs can be accommodated by our Digi-Talk network to provide reliable on site communications within the manufacturing facility and reliable wide area communications over Southern California. Often manufacturing personnel would benefit from being able to take their radio home to facilitate communications with other personnel who are on the job working. This is easily accomplished with Diga-Talk while it could be difficult to impossible to accomplish with any network that could be purchased and installed by the hospital.
Try our Diga-Talk radios with the following great features:
- Loud and clear quality audio that can be heard under loud noise conditions with Kenwood’s noise reduction technology
- Quick access to your personnel – connection time is typically 1.0 second or less
- GPS tracking can tell you where your crew are located
- Eliminate the distraction and illegal use of cellular while driving
- The liability associated with a driver getting into an accident while using a cellular device can cost a company far in excess the cost of a two-way radio system
Remember the 3 rules of making money in real estate, Location, Location and Location. The 3 Cs of radio communications are Coverage, Coverage and more Coverage. Our customers demand coverage. Every hospital has their own need for coverage which is never exactly the same as another facility. By providing more coverage in Southern California than any other radio company, we can provide solutions when the others can’t do it. By adding a network site within your facility, we can provide the best of both worlds. Read more…