Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, Calif., unveiled a new satellite system that will back up existing hospital phones and communication tools in case of an emergency, according to an article on the Desert Sun website.
The satellite system would transfer the hospital's 2,000 landlines over to satellite phones, meaning no disruption in service.
"It means that the hospital will never be out of communication with other hospitals across the hill, police, fire departments and ambulance services," said Barbara Pearce, a telecommunications supervisor at the hospital. "We will never be down."
This is the hospitals latest effort in planning for a variety of situations such as earthquakes in an area that sits along the San Andreas Fault. The hospital also has radios, a separate satellite phone, capability of emergency-to-emergency room conversations, an Internet-reporting system that can share with other officials and hospitals details about bed availability and six emergency triage trailers they could deploy if necessary, the article said.
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