MUHC superhospital still doesn't have cellphone service
Plan to boost signal inside could cost millions of dollars
The McGill University Health Centre is a brand new, state-of-the-art superhospital — that still has no cellphone reception.
As CBC News first reported in March, construction materials used to build the hospital are blocking cellphone signals inside the buildings, meaning reception is spotty or non-existent in many places.
At the time, the hospital said it was working on a fix, but that still hasn't happened.
To boost the cellphone signal inside the superhospital, an antenna was installed across the street and on the employee parking garage.
' I wear a pager now, but a lot of doctors don't have one still. You then call them on their cell, but if they aren't in an area where they have reception, it goes straight to voicemail."- MUHC doctor
Combined, the external antennas only improved signal penetration to about 40 or 50 per cent, said Richard Fahey, the MUHC's director of public affairs.
The next step is putting in hundreds of small antennas inside the hospital, known as a distributed antenna system.
But it's complicated now that the hospital has patients and staff in it.
"You need to have wiring installed," said Fahey. "So you need to do it properly with all the precautionary measures to avoid any kind of dust falling from the ceilings."
Fall deadline won't be met
Initially, the hospital said it would have full mobile service by this fall — but now, Fahey said, they won't meet that deadline and that it will probably take several more months.
"We are talking about a multi-million dollar project, so it is costly," said Fahey. "So that's why we tried to have the external antennas to reduce as much of the cost internally."
Fahey wouldn't say how the MUHC plans to pay for this, but he did say the hospital was searching for a potential sponsor.
Impact on clinical operations
While the system is being installed, physicians and medical personnel have been using pagers and Wi-Fi phones.
But as one surgeon who declined to be identified told CBC News that it's slowed everything down, returning things to the way they were 10 years ago.
"I wear a pager now, but a lot of doctors don't have one still," he said. "You then call them on their cell, but if they aren't in an area where they have reception, it goes straight to voicemail."
He said many clinical teams rely on iMessages — the Apple iPhone messaging service that uses wireless networks rather than cell signals — to communicate with each other rather than quick cellphone chats to check in on a patient's status. Some residents have asked for their own Wi-Fi phone, but it's expensive.
Another doctor, who also spoke anonymously, said he's actually enjoying the temporary break from his phone. He said it's made him more present and forced him to have more face-to-face conversations with his colleagues.
If he's needed urgently, they'll page him over the intercom or page a resident.
But, he admits, the cellphone issue is just one of many little frustrations that are still being ironed out at the new hospital.
"It's a slow process here," he said. "I don't see the hospital being fully functional for another year."
The MUHC said there haven't been a significant number of patient complaints received by the MUHC or the ombudsman on cellphone reception.