Houston Hospitals, Wi-Fi, and Social Media

Jim Hughes — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:11:33 +0000

Okay. I spend too much time in hospitals. Fortunately, some of it is doing lay chaplaincy. But I also sometimes get to hang out when one or the other of my family members is having a procedure.

I found the different practices of several of the big hospital systems in Houston to be interesting — and curious.

Usually, I’m just packing my iPhone, so Wi-Fi is nice. Sometimes I’ll haul my MacBook along, so Wi-Fi is essential. Either way, I’ll usually check not only email, but also Facebook and Twitter.

M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

M. D. Anderson, where I volunteer for Lifeline Chaplaincy, is the hospital I visit most often. As I walk in the door, my iPhone picks up the Wi-Fi network, and I’m connected wherever I roam through the hospital. Social media sites are readily accessible through the network. This is not surprising, as MDA is very social media savvy, using it extensively in an official capacity. A high percentage of patients I visit have laptops to stay connected with the outside world, sometimes to do some work, and to keep friends and family advised about what’s going on. I give MDA an A+.

Memorial-Hermann

This week, we spent a good deal of time at Memorial-Hermann Memorial City Hospital where our daughter had surgery. We walked into the surgery waiting room with two MacBooks, and as soon as Sara went into surgery, out they came. Eloise was doing work, and was able to connect immediately. I had more trouble connecting, because my computer had just been hibernating, and had Facebook open. Turns out MHHS blocks Facebook. The page that comes up says it’s blocked because it’s a social media site, and has verbiage about how hospital computers are for work, etc. It turns out that they block it for visitors just as they do for employees.

Once I got online, I did a little experimenting. Twitter isn’t blocked, and I actually made a post to Twitter that also went to Facebook as well. I was also able to use the Facebook app on the iPhone while on their Wi-Fi.

Like a lot of other people, I use Facebook a lot to keep friends and family posted on medical situations, and posted via the iPhone several times on Tuesday. It would have been much more convenient to do so from the computer, as well as to interact with the folks that were answering back and asking questions, but of course I couldn’t.

My take? Memorial-Hermann Hospital System really doesn’t get social media. But they do have good, easy-to-access Wi-Fi, which we were thankful for.

MHHS gets an A from me for the easily accessible Wi-Fi, but an F for social media awareness and patient/family needs. I’d also suggest that they’re sending the message to their employees that they don’t feel that their employees are trustworthy, and that those that really are determined to use Facebook during work hours know how to get around the system.

Methodist Hospital System

The guest Wi-Fi at the Methodist Hospital facilities is password protected. To get a password, you have to call a special phone number, answer several questions including who the patient is and how long you’ll be there. You’re then given a password good only for that time period.

I haven’t tried it on a laptop, but with the iPhone, it just wasn’t worth it. I used it once with the iPhone, and it was nothing but hassle. You could log on, and everything would work fine. But then if you didn’t use the phone for a while, you had to log back in to use it again. After doing this a couple of times, I just had the phone forget the network and stuck with Edge.

Methodist just doesn’t get it. It’s worse than the AT&T hotspots used to be.

Fortunately, in some Methodist locations in the Med Center at least, Baylor College of Medicine’s guest Wi-Fi is available, and easy to use.

I don’t know whether Methodist blocks sites on their guest network or not, so I can’t comment there.

But I give Methodist an F for their guest Wi-Fi.

Anyone else out there have experience with the guest Wi-Fi networks at hospitals and care to add to the discussion?