But others aren't sure that wireless LANs will amount to more than a specialty product. NPR's Boots is among these doubters. He expects wireless to show up in the places where it already has established a presence. These include conference rooms, temporary office space where it doesn't make sense to install network wires, and environments such as warehouses and hospitals where workers don't spend much time at their desks. Federal Users At Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, for example, wireless systems are being used to record medications administered to patients.
Nurses push a cart with a notebook computer and medicines into patients' rooms.
At each bedside they scan the patient's plastic ID bracelet, which has a bar code printed on it, and then the labels on the medications they will administer. The system checks the type of medicine, dosage and time interval since the last dose. In a trial installation, one VA hospital reduced dosage errors by 84 percent. The remaining errors were attributed to individuals who bypassed the automated system. They then will add wireless capabilities to a much more complex application, a comprehensive patient record system, so that doctors, admissions representatives, therapists and others can record their interactions with patients, wherever they occur.