Internet at Dialysis?

[kianhu]

I am curious.  Do any of you guys have internet access at dialysis?   And do you have individual televisions?  Thanks.   

[Chicken Little]

We have individual TVs.  I have internet access and movies too on my Treo. 

[boxman55]

no internet but personal TV is there..Boxman55

[Bajanne]

No internet whatsoever.  And signal don't seem to penetrate the hospital, so I can't even use a laptop to capture the wireless (in fact, our cell phones don't work in the unit, except you are in this one chair near a back door!)
There are two televisions and 8 chairs.  Only about 4 people can see the television easily, and you usually have to watch whatever someone else wants to watch.

[BigSky]

Each station has its own little tv and we have wireless internet access.

[kitkatz]

We have individual TVs and you had better have your own headphones with you. Some of the TVS are set for headphone sound only.  I have no idea if wireless would work in the old building.

[Ang]

personal  tv,some  of  the  remotes  don't  work,gonna  be  replaced  1  day  ,  some  century.manager  wants  to  charge  $2 week  for  tv, does,nt  know  how  to  implement,so  never  get  done.
internet  access,  that  would  be  heaven.

[kianhu]

Charge $2 a week for TV.  How ridiculous is that?  As if you dont pay enough already.  That is unbelievable.  What company is it? 

[Ang]

its  a  hospital  rental  company,they've  got  a  stranglehold  on  the  tv  buisnes  here  in  melbourne  and  throughout  australia.
when  i  had  surgery  to  have  a  nephrectomy  in  jan 07,they  were  charging  $7  a  day.

[Hawkeye]

We have personal flat screen TVs with satellite reception.  Once the wireless system is installed (we are on the waiting list) there should be an unsecured access channel for patient to connect to.

[Bill Peckham]

Here's a link to an article I wrote for NN&I about getting internet access at Northwest Kidney Centers http://www.speakeasy.org/~bpeckham/internet.html

And here is a five year update written by the NKC CEO J Jackson (pdf lnk) http://www.nwkidney.org/images/website/docs/InternetArticleNNI.pdf

Bottom line: all NKC units have donation funded internet access and three loner laptops (donated by the Gates Foundation), there are volunteers available to show online newbies how to set up an email account, etc. All stations have a ceiling mounted TV, a ceiling mounted radiant heat panel, a call button, privacy curtains (should the need arise), ceiling mounted dimmable  light as well as the individually switched fluorescent light bank which is turned on during on during cannulation (and decannulation) but is otherwise left off (I hate visiting units and having to dialyze under a bank of fluorescent lights).

[Stacy Without An E]

We have individual TV's that are affixed to the ceiling so you have to lean really far back in the chair to view them properly.  If you have vision issues (like me) it's really a waste of time.  I really wish our TV's were set to "headphones only" because then I could watch a movie in peace.  My sister gave me a portable DVD player for Christmas so I bring my Netflix DVD's and try to lose myself.

The satellite TV only gets 6 channels so I doubt we'll ever have internet access.

[pierrat]

We have personal flat screen TVs with satellite reception.  Once the wireless system is installed (we are on the waiting list) there should be an unsecured access channel for patient to connect to.

Good lord, where are you going to dialysis, Beverly Hills?

[pierrat]

All we have are 6 inch tv's attached to a adjustable arm, Its a Davita clinic. Theirs an attorneys office upstairs and if you can sit in the chair all the way to the back you might be able to catch onto their wifi system. I bypassed all that and paying for Sprint EVDO coverage which is broadband speed internet with the same coverage as the cellular network so its not restriced to the couple hundred feet of a wifi hotspot.

[Hawkeye]

Good lord, where are you going to dialysis, Beverly Hills?

No, we are in the midwest.  The screens aren't huge plasmas or anything like that.  They are on the same kind of adjustable arms most places have, and are about 12 inches.

[livecam]

In this day and age I think I would refuse to dialyze anyplace that did not have broadband access available.  The boredom and monotony was difficult during the 3 years I spent on dialysis and I would not repeat it the same way again. 

I purchased a laptop specifically to use during treatment but getting any sort of broadband into the unit was impossible then.  Wifi was a glimmer in the eyes of a few engineers, there was no CATV entry to the building, and neither cable based broadband or DSL existed in the area at the time.

Today there are many more options available.  If the unit didn't have access I'd probably try to glom on to a nearby open wifi connection or offer to pay for broadband at the unit myself.  There are other options available as well such as satelite based broadband that will work anywhere if cable or DSL based broadband isn't available.

[jedimaster]

Agree with livecam (for once!  )....I don't watch too much TV, so I got a small laptop to be connected while on dialysis. On my little machine I can read weird websites like this one ( ) and if i want I can watch movies or catch up a TV show if I want to.
At my center they did have internet access...but now i am at home.

[kitkatz]

Weird websites? Us??