Wi-Fi "hot spots" created in some practices

With wireless fidelity, physicians are offering their patients the chance to surf the Internet while they wait.

By Mike Norbut, AMNews staff. Jan. 17, 2005.

Instead of flipping through old magazines, patients at some Medical Clinic of North Texas offices can visit their favorite Web sites for updated news and market information.

Rather than sitting in the waiting room worried about what they're missing at work, patients at Georgia Reproductive Specialists can check their e-mail and send instant messages to co-workers as if they were down the hall.

Patients are doing this not through a community waiting-room computer, but through their own laptops and handheld devices. That's because these physician practices have created wireless fidelity "hot spots" in their offices.

Wi-Fi allows users on portable computers or devices to access the Internet without a physical modem connection. An access point enables a connection to a local area network and creates a hot spot for devices with wireless cards, which communicate with the network via radio signals.

With Wi-Fi becoming an affordable option for remote Internet access, some practices are extending the service to their patients as a way to improve customer service. It gives patients a chance to feel like they're accomplishing something while they wait, doctors said.

"The Internet is a necessary element in people's lives," said Khang Tran, MD, an internist in the West Plano office of the Medical Clinic of North Texas. "We don't like our patients to be waiting for a long time, but we want their wait to be as comfortable as possible."

The Medical Clinic of North Texas, which has 78 physicians in mostly primary care specialties, is spread across 24 sites. Six of the offices located in what the practice deems more technologically savvy areas around Dallas are now Wi-Fi hot spots.