[dabagboy]

Our medical practice would like to use our 14 Blackberry's as text pagers.

Email will not as at times messages are delayed 1-8 hours for no known reason. This is not safe when issue may involve patient care.

SMS doesn't confirm receipt very well (and delays are similar to email).

Our initial preference was for PIN messaging, however it does not appear to work from a PC (from non BlackBerry users).

Would an instant message client work?

Which one might you propose?

[bbmember]

Originally Posted by dabagboy

Our medical practice would like to use our 14 Blackberry's as text pagers.

Email will not as at times messages are delayed 1-8 hours for no known reason. This is not safe when issue may involve patient care.

SMS doesn't confirm receipt very well (and delays are similar to email).

Our initial preference was for PIN messaging, however it does not appear to work from a PC (from non BlackBerry users).

Would an instant message client work?

Which one might you propose?

I think RIM has its yahoo messenger for Nextel. I am sure other carriers will also get this some time in the future. Or you can decide to use a 3rd party messenger. The other solution would be to use a corporate IM like Sametime etc. That feature will be available with BES 4.1. But I am not sure if this need will justify the cost. So the best solution I can think of is to use RIM's yahoo messenger with Nextel at the moment.

[JROCK2004]

well you could do im but you could also send a page right thru voicemail

[dabagboy]

Originally Posted by JROCK2004

well you could do im but you could also send a page right thru voicemail

Right but a numeric page, not a text page right?

[wuberry]

If you can be satisfied with numeric paging, then you can do that through voicemail, if your carrier provides it. (Cingular does and I assume others do, too.)

You might also try a third-party service such as http://www.numericpage.com. I haven't had any experience with any of them, so I can't recommend any. Again, these are -- I think -- just numeric paging services.

Cingular also recently started offering a separate enterprise paging service that does provide text paging to BB http://www.cingular.com/midtolarge/entpaging.

[dabagboy]

We don't use cingular, does the BB Messenger have a PC client that would install to a desktop PC?

[southwestcomm]

Nope. BB Messenger only works on the units.

Take a look at:
http://www.respondnow.net/index.htm

The software is used by many public safety agencies and can be Web based.

[bdestephen]

If you want to use SMS messages you can send them from your email...

Cingular -
Verizon -
T Mobile -

[nb_mitch]

Be careful that some of these Text Message solutions will not be part of your BB plan and you may be charged per message or required to have another non BB data plan to cover it.

I would probably go with a IM program like AIM, which can be PC based and supported on your BB by a 3rd party product, like Yak-ON or others (see IM threads for more detail). I like Yak-On (the only one I have used) as I get a pop-up with the username of the sender and it vibrates my BB at the same time.

[Mark Rejhon]

Originally Posted by dabagboy

Our medical practice would like to use our 14 Blackberry's as text pagers.

Email will not as at times messages are delayed 1-8 hours for no known reason. This is not safe when issue may involve patient care.

SMS doesn't confirm receipt very well (and delays are similar to email).

Our initial preference was for PIN messaging, however it does not appear to work from a PC (from non BlackBerry users).

Would an instant message client work?

Which one might you propose?

Try BES.

It's usually faster and more reliable than the BWC/BIS -- This will keep email delays to a minimum -- often 5 seconds or less. It's less likely to get overloaded like a busy carrier BWC/BIS during high demand periods.

Another method is to use PIN messaging, but that's mainly between BlackBerry units.

[nb_mitch]

If you are using a BIS, you should change your mail to forward it from your mail server rather than using the BWC/BIS to get you your mail. My mail gets to me in 3-5 seconds normally once it has hit the mail server. But you said 1-8 hours, maybe you need a new mail server too

[Mark Rejhon]

Originally Posted by nb_mitch

If you are using a BIS, you should change your mail to forward it from your mail server rather than using the BWC/BIS to get you your mail. My mail gets to me in 3-5 seconds normally once it has hit the mail server. But you said 1-8 hours, maybe you need a new mail server too

Even with mail forwarding, overloaded BWC/BIS servers can sometimes take a lot longer -- that happened with T-Mobile when they first released the 7100, there was an explosion of users and there were mail delays as lots of new 7100 users started using it.

That's why I absolutely recommend BES on a very reliable Internet connection, for mission critical stuff such as emergency medical services, if you want to deploy BlackBerries in such a situation. (I still would recommend numeric pagers a backup -- but numeric pagers in poor reception areas will just silently lose the page; so there's excellent reasons to go BlackBerry, too as a backup to the numeric pager.)

[Aroc]

After a year and a half our BES server has been rock solid. Assuming the user is in an area with reception, the longest we've waited for a message is 2 minutes. Most are delivered in 2-5 seconds, with <0.05% taking longer than 30 seconds. I don't believe we've ever "lost" any messages either. We have a simple 12 user BES and have been running it for a year and a half.

And if the person is in a place that is out of data coverage (sometimes when traveling)

There is a <confirm> tag you can put in front of the subject line and you'll receive a delivery confirmation / return recept notice. You do not need a BlackBerry to do this, any email client can send this to a BB. This should work well for your Doctors. At least if you don't get the return receipt in less than a couple minutes, you know to follow-up with a numeric page (to either the BB or a separate pager).

One of the great things too about the Bb, is how they "sip" data. If you have something like T-Mobile, which only has coverage on highways and in metropolian areas, once you move into range, the BB will download all of the email it missed (up to 7 days, AFAIK), and for normal amounts of messages this only takes 15-30 seconds. And it will do so automatically even with the device in your pocket.

I think they are great, even given the limitations of the handhelds and network.

[Aroc]

I saw this thread ( http://www.blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?t=21713 ) which reminded me that one can send messages to PIN addresses from the Server Management Tool for a BES server. I've done this quite often in the past (I'm the BES admin).

[ShaneToronto]

I think another consideration is who and how pages will be sent out. It is unlikely an it tech would be sending the messages- it will more than likely be a receptionist or an answering service.

Therefore the system would have to be easy to access and use and would have to be intuitive. That doesnt sound like the BES server tools (although I have never used it, i would think that it is more than click and page).

It seems that email or some sort of sms gateway are the only practical methods to do this. perhaps it is possible to set up an automatic confirmaton response on the blackberry handheld itself which upon receiving a "page" via email would generate a response to the sender confirming that it has been received by the handheld. That would assure receipt the same way pin delivery noptification would.

Just a thought.

[torifile]

I'm interested in this too. I'd like to use my BB as my pager when I start my practice. That means patients should have a number that is NOT my cell number so they can send me a page. Is this possible? Ideally it would be a phone number since many patients in distress (I'm a psychologist) won't be at a computer but will likely have a phone nearby. Any ideas?