How can we improve mobile coverage in the hospital?
Click here to see the StellaOffice repeater which is an economical repeater kit designed for offices, hospitals or any large public building.
So, How can we improve mobile coverage in a hospital? First, lets briefly explain the underlining problem.
Hospitals are large public buildings with large numbers of different people passing through them. These people include the staff of the hospital, people staying at the hospital and visitors. Often mobile phone coverage is very poor in the halls and rooms. This is usually due to the physical size of such buildings. Furthermore, the walls are usually covered with sheets of insulated foil, and the windows are usually double glazed with “K glass“. Large buildings that are well insulated like this block mobile phone signals almost entirely.
However, hospitals are places where people really do need to use their phones, and it is surprising that poor mobile phone coverage is tolerated. It could even be considered a “health and safety” issue. Anyone who has stayed in, or had a friend or relative stay in a hospital can attest to this.
In addition to the public suffering from poor mobile phone coverage, the actual efficiency of operating the hospital is impacted. Increasingly, hospital staff use i-pads and other mobile devices to access patient information, hospital data bases and even just to be contactable by phone. Futhermore, many mobile systems now been adopted require constant connection to the “cloud” at all times. This trend will only continue as mobile computing grows. Hospitals that cannot provide mobile coverage will not be able to ensure the high quality and efficient services that people have come to expect nowadays.
The solution to this problem is to install a well designed mobile phone repeater. The repeater should repeat the signals of all operators at the same time. As the building to be covered is usually large, with many rooms, we would suggest a 4-port repeater. This will allow the installer to install 4 different indoor antennas. A single antenna will usually improve coverage over an area of up to 1000sqm, so 4 antennas can cover up to 4000sqm, depending on interior wall construction and outdoor signal level.
We do know there are legal requirements regarding mobile phone coverage in public buildings in the US. We would expect similar legislation to follow in the coming years in Europe.
Click here to see the StellaOffice repeater which is an economical repeater kit designed for offices, hospitals or any large public building.