A New Electronic Leash
Remember the days when the sonographer could go off on portables (toting a bundle of film cassettes) taking their own sweet time to wander around the hospital, do a few cases in the intensive care units, chat with the floor nurses and colleagues they met in the hallway or admire the view from the top floor of the hospital (at least that's what I've heard other people did...).
Then came healthcare reform and budget cuts, which forced all of us to do more with less staff, not to mention the dreaded pagers the schedulers could use to track us down and tell us there was another portable case added on. Those pagers were the first generation of "electronic leashes" that could yank us back to our responsibilities.
Later, cell phones were implemented to summon the stray sonographer. Fortunately, caller ID allowed us to choose which calls we decided to answer, but by and large the cell phone enhanced communication between the base station (sonography lab) and the roaming professionals both within as well as outside the hospital setting (e.g., on-call).
Now, there are new tracking tools, and the damn things are turning our very own beloved technology against us!
They're called ultrasound positioning systems. These tracking devices can be utilized in hospitals to monitor the locations, in real-time, of patients (so the nursing station would know when Mr. Jones is on his way back to the unit) as well as medical equipment (i.e., ultrasound scanners being used for portable procedures). Obviously they have other uses outside of medicine too.
The Sonitor system uses wireless detectors and "tags" that are linked to a digital file containing all vital statistics and information about the device or person being monitored. The tag uses ultrasound waves to transmit a unique identification signal to detector. The detectors transmit signals over an existing local area network (LAN) to a central computer that stores the information about the tag's location and the time of receipt of the signal. The system is reported to be 100 percent reliable in its ability to track the location of equipment and people (patients or professionals).
Oh well, no more lally-gagging when you're out on those portables. But just think of how useful a tracking system like this could be to monitor where your teenagers are going and how long they spend at the party on a Saturday night!
See why ultrasound is used and how theses systems can be utilized in a hospital environment here: Why Ultrasound for Indoor Positioning Systems?