I went to the hospital recently, and despite the fact that they are or at least used to be concerned about cell phones, they now have pagers a la restaurant pagers to let you know when to go somewhere. It was nice, but it seems hard to believe that they wouldn't also cause problems. I mean, I can come up with answers, but it still seems odd.

Not really that odd: the pagers they give you most likely don't have a transmiter, and receive signals from antenae operating on a known frequency with a known power level.

I know that my two-way pager will cause disruptions on my monitor and noises from my computer speaker when it calls out to the system. I imagine they're concerned with what might happen with much more sensitive hospital equipment. Probably nothing, but they certainly don't want to take that risk.

Of course, if people would use cell phones in a more considerate manner, they'd probably open up a few safe areas in the hospital to use them.

-jk