Are intrinsically safe radios required in certain areas of a hospital?

[vsp5151]

Are intrinsically safe portable radios required in certain areas of a hospital? Several members of our amateur radio club which operate a HF and VHF radio with Winlink connectivity as emergency communications if needed. We have been asked to occasionally go out of our radio room to provide communications from other areas of the hospital. I am very familiar with IS radios because I retired from a gas company. Just trying to be safe. Sorry if I posted this in the wrong area. I did a search on Google and this forum but did not find the answers.

 

[KevinC]

Are intrinsically safe portable radios required in certain areas of a hospital? Several members of our amateur radio club which operate a HF and VHF radio with Winlink connectivity as emergency communications if needed. We have been asked to occasionally go out of our radio room to provide communications from other areas of the hospital. I am very familiar with IS radios because I retired from a gas company. Just trying to be safe. Sorry if I posted this in the wrong area. I did a search on Google and this forum but did not find the answers.

My answer...I've never encountered a hospital environment where that was required.

Official answer...Check with the facility in question as they are the only ones that can answer for that exact location.

 

[DS506]

I have never heard of ham radio causing issues at our hospital. I have witnessed RF from wireless microphones and a local TV broadcaster affecting cardiac telemetry units.
Touch base with the Bio Medical Engineering Tech or department. It may be part of Maintenance/Facility Management. They might say as long as you are outside of a patient care area you may be OK (Administrative suite, conference room, lobby, …) We have a VHF/UHF ham setup in the Emergency department connected to an external antenna for the ARES group.

 

[AM909]

Maybe places like ORs, where flammable anaesthesia is used? Places where there's a lot of oxygen in use, like respiratory therapy? There are probably warehouse or distribution areas where those things are stored, too. Even if not IS, you might want reasonably high IP rating (like IP67) to protect the radio. Hospitals can be messy places. I've seen non-IS radios used in many patient-care areas.

 

[merlin]

Anyplace where O2 is being used, and depends on the hospital policy.

 

[FFPM571]

Anyplace where O2 is being used, and depends on the hospital policy.

We sell and service hundreds of radios for hospitals and they are constantly used in all parts of the hospital. The only places that we have ever seen any restrictions were in the OR because of flammability and Labs.. Even nurses in ICU have been carrying SL3500e radios

 

[paulears]

Same in the UK, look at the porters. They go everywhere and have normal radios.

 

[speedway_navigator]

One of my students said his company is looking at PoC radios that are IS rated because of the Motorola backlog. I was not aware those radios had that option. It would be interesting to see a spectrum analyzer sweep in the part 15 bands, especially if they use Vocera.

 

[paulears]

Despite being a firm supporter of Chinese radios, I am not sure I would believe their certification of IS. Worse, I dare not sell them as IS compliant, because if something goes wrong - I'm stuffed.

 

[TampaTyron]

We support dozens of hospital chains covering hundreds of facilities.......... not 1 IS/UL radio in their fleets, unless they take the IS/UL radio due to supply chain issues on regular radios.

Power companies are about 25% IS/UL (transmission and distribution are non IS, coal/gas power plants are IS).

Oilfield guys are 50/50 IS/UL.

Gas/Oil Pipeline guys are 10% IS/UL.

TT

 

[speedway_navigator]

We support dozens of hospital chains covering hundreds of facilities.......... not 1 IS/UL radio in their fleets

I was thinking that must be the case considering all the electronics in one. How comfortable would a person confined to a bed feel about being in a hazardous environment?

What do the Ratings, Codes, and Symbols Signify for Intrinsically Safe Devices? - Intrinsically Safe Store

Explore how ratings, codes, and symbols define the safety of intrinsically safe devices for hazardous environments.

intrinsicallysafestore.com

Looks like there are different levels of certifying IS gear. I wonder if the FCC will look at labs for IS like they did for type acceptance.