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Hospitals


hobosoundguy

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Hi Pat

Yes the docs have their mobile phone(s) on plus one or two pagers - I would find them as I was fitting a radio mic and checking what else was in the pocket before I tried dropping the Tx in.

The OR is the same, but there are the other docs, observers, nurses, other staff all with their cell phones on. Plus iPads and laptops on wifi.

Hospitals are chock full of RF

Don't forget all the monitoring equipment which in many hospitals is now wirelessly connected to the nurses station. I don't envy anybody who has to do an extended non scripted show in that environment.

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I worked on an ER show here in Australia last year for 11 weeks. Our setup was a 788T with CL8. Each shift we'd have at least 6 radio mics on selected nurses and doctors, and I had a CS3e on my boom. I used Rycote Stickies and Overcovers in the V of their scrubs and transmitters sat nicely in the deep front pockets of their scrubs.

We had a scratch feed and Lockit box on the camera (5DmkII). Definitely did not want to be cabled to camera.

I found a nice spot in the emergency bay where I was mostly out of shot and out of the way of the staff, and always used my boom. Depending on the type of emergency that is called in the doctors and nurses will sometimes cover themselves with a papery gown which could become very noisy, and sometimes they'd wear very heavy lead smocks due to the xray machines which would kill the lavs completely. Again, boom was a must.

If I could do it again I might choose a different mic, perhaps my 8060 for it's more forgiving pattern and smoother off axis characteristics. I also would use a longer pole than my K-tek ENG pole.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights were fun. Lot's of drug and alcohol related cases.

It was a pretty amazing experience, I'm sure you'll love it...

Good luck!

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That sounds like a very heavy (and large) rig to be toting around whilst booming. I know plenty here do it, but 'at least' 6 RX in the bag plus the scratch send whilst trying to run around and swing? Back killer! Had a very similar rig for 'dramality' recently and having been refused a boom op I was always happy to put the bag down!

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Yeah, it was a big load, luckily 8 hours of our 10 hour shifts were spent sitting or waiting for an emergency. Sometimes on a quiet day/night we might not get a single story. And when a good emergency/story came in, it was usually less than 30 minutes from the time the job came through the emergency door, to the time they are stabilized and moved on to the intensive care unit. Such is the nature of an Emergency Department...

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Legal issues with wireless mics perhaps?

Did a shoot years ago in a preemie ward and the consensus on mic'ing that came from staff who worked on the ward was that if anyone wore a wireless mic, there was no way to guarantee patient confidentiality... Boomed everything, that way we could be 'waved away' if things got too heavy.

Showing my age, but this was back in the dark ages before reality TV, though. Expectations would probably differ now.

Was throwing a wireless hop to camera. Was NOT an issue.

Cheers,

R

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Yeah, it was a big load, luckily 8 hours of our 10 hour shifts were spent sitting or waiting for an emergency. Sometimes on a quiet day/night we might not get a single story. And when a good emergency/story came in, it was usually less than 30 minutes from the time the job came through the emergency door, to the time they are stabilized and moved on to the intensive care unit. Such is the nature of an Emergency Department...

---

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Fairplay!

My rig was incredibly heavy and really impacted on how much skill one could actually devote to the Art Of Boom. I would have had serious doubts about running that much kit for a full on documentary as opposed to generally being able to lose the boom (perforce) and rely on mixing the radios whilst sitting down.

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Legal issues with wireless mics perhaps?

Did a shoot years ago in a preemie ward and the consensus on mic'ing that came from staff who worked on the ward was that if anyone wore a wireless mic, there was no way to guarantee patient confidentiality... Boomed everything, that way we could be 'waved away' if things got too heavy.

Showing my age, but this was back in the dark ages before reality TV, though. Expectations would probably differ now.

Was throwing a wireless hop to camera. Was NOT an issue.

Cheers,

R

I have run into this even doing news stories where you are just in and out. Really what it comes down to is at least here in the US So many medical personnel are incredibly paranoid about perceived HIPPA violations. To the point where many do not even understand what constitutes a violation. In 2 of the cases when this happened to me the hospital PIO literally laughed and set the doc @ nurse involved straight. FYI it usually just involves whoever you interview signing a consent form. I would actually go so far as to say that the people I know who do medical reporting say that is the one reason they have to work as hard as they do for interviews, i.e. the unadulterated terror invoked by the thought of HIPPA.

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I have run into this even doing news stories where you are just in and out. Really what it comes down to is at least here in the US So many medical personnel are incredibly paranoid about perceived HIPPA violations. To the point where many do not even understand what constitutes a violation. In 2 of the cases when this happened to me the hospital PIO literally laughed and set the doc @ nurse involved straight. FYI it usually just involves whoever you interview signing a consent form. I would actually go so far as to say that the people I know who do medical reporting say that is the one reason they have to work as hard as they do for interviews, i.e. the unadulterated terror invoked by the thought of HIPPA.

PIO ?

HIPPA ?

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  • 1 month later...

hi fellas,

Just wanted to follow up on this post. Thank you all for the great info and input. it really helped in the planning. Unfortunately at the 11th hour the location pulled out of the show.

it'd definitely have been i'd have loved to have done but as a word of warning to others in the future hospital seriescan fall apart at any moment.

hope others get mileage out of this link.

many thanks

hobo

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  • 1 year later...

Legal issues with wireless mics perhaps?

 

Hey guys interesting thread. Next week I have a one day shot in an hospital (in the delevery section) on a feature documentary and I'm a bit concerned about wireless issues. Legally wise and concerning possible interferences also.... Cellphones are prohibited but what about wireless mics can they interfere with the medical equipment?

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Hey guys interesting thread. Next week I have a one day shot in an hospital (in the delevery section) on a feature documentary and I'm a bit concerned about wireless issues. Legally wise and concerning possible interferences also.... Cellphones are prohibited but what about wireless mics can they interfere with the medical equipment?

A hospital PIO thought radio mics would interfere with patient monitoring equipment on a gig I had a few years go. I explained that if the nearby 1000 kw tv transmitter on an adjacent channel to my radios wasn't causing problems my pair of 50 mw transmitters wouldn't either. He confessed he only thought there might be a problem and he had no idea how wireless mics actually work but there was no rule against their use, he was only being cautious. A quick phone call to the on-site patient monitor maintenance guy confirming what I'd said and we were good to go.

Best regards,

Jim

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I learned more than I wanted to about this topic a few years ago, first as a patient then on a documentary. Let's see if I remember correctly: Most medical devices operate at lower frequencies than our wireless mics. Some are on TV channel 37, frequencies not legally available to wireless mic users in the US.

 

So you could start on this page:

http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/medical-device-radiocommunications-service-medradio

 

Follow some links, make some print outs of typical medical device frequencies, the frequencies of your microphones, and as Jim G suggests (I think), have a chat with the right people at the hospital (PR in our case). For us, we had a PR person with us at all times. Mainly to make sure we didn't inadvertently screw up patient confidentiality. The PR folks knew what was what and were mostly helpful.

 

Have fun. 

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Thanks!

 

I guess every place is different but here is what I found for Canada. http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf09826.html

 

It is prohibited to use sound equipment in the range of 401 to 457mhz in most cases but also mush higher in other cases 1395-to 1675mz and also in the 2k+ range that we don't need to worry about.

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf09543.html

 

They don't use the band in 584–608 MHz because of digital television stations. Might be able to find  some available bands in some regions.

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf09546.html

 

The hospitals have also some concerns about 470–583 MHz because they need to retune often, so it might be a possibility for find some clean band in that range.

 

Some WMTS devices operate in the band 174–216 MHz so be carefull with Comtek 216...

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In the US, WMTS operates in 608 – 614, 1395 – 1400, and 1427 – 1432 MHz ranges. 

 

I finished last week working in the new Johns Hopkins surgical ICU. I used a couple of radios, in TV 49/block 26 and one on another lower block (can't remember which one). All were in the broadcast TV spectrum, so they're in the clear. I also used Comtek 216's with no issue. No problems with or prohibitions against cell phone use on the floor.

 

The Hopkins SICU is very new and extremely high tech. They make extensive use of RFID tags and wi-fi frequencies as well the standard WMTS systems. The hospital folks were far more concerned about patient privacy, that we keep our hands clean, cough into the crook of our arms and that we stay at least 5 feet from any real patients since we hadn't had recent TB tests. The patients on the floor are among the sickest and weakest in the entire facility and our needs came second to patient care at all times.

 

We were urged to wash our hands after contact with anything that had been on the floor and to wipe down cables and the like before we left the facility.

Best regards,

Jim

 

PS It should be noted that in the US, MedRadio devices do operate at 401 – 406, 413 – 419, 426 – 432, 438 – 444, and 451 – 457 MHz. These are generally implanted therapeutic devices like defibrillators, pacemakers and neuromuscular stimulators.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi Jim,

 

Hopkins knowingly allowed persons, without known Tb status, into patient areas of an ICU??  Did they employ any special fomite measures?

 

Thank you very much

 

Fury

The hospital is unaware of the TB status of most of the patients on the unit or families visiting patients, for what it's worth. Most of the patients on a surgical ICU aren't there after elective procedures. They've been hustled through the system to remove a tumor, repair an aneurism,  after trauma related repairs, etc.

 

The new SICU is big and roomy as well as very quiet. unlike the dozen or more units I've been on in the past which were crowded and noisy. We were not working with real patients, but with actors. We were kept far away from patients for both HIPA and infection control in both directions, from us but also TO us.  We shot in the last room on the hall, with two unoccupied rooms between us and a room with a patient mostly for noise control but also for patient privacy. We were moved out of the hall when patients were on the move if we were working in the hall at the time. They knew what time patients were coming on the unit with great precision since they are all coming from the surgical suites and staff needs to be ready for them. We all washed our hands often and did what we were told.

 

There are some folks shooting in all the Hopkins facilities that come in contact with patients. They get TB tested and have to have had a current flu shot, maybe more. They are shooting with patients who have agreed to be in the shows being made. There are multiple levels of releases involved as well.

Edited by Jim Gilchrist
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I've shot in a ED and received a call following to say the audio on the nano was missing - I was feeding the Cx on a cable -  they did end up finding it sitting at very low level on the 7th track on the recorder - very odd, I had backups and it was also on the cx cards - we decided it was an effect of a strong magnetic field / wireless interference since we'd been shooting IVs all week quite happily with the same rig.. but who knows?

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