joseph,
Thanks for the link. There is some good information there. There is also a lot of doctors there that have a very poor understanding of Business-grade VoIP. Cable phone systems, as you know, are not necessarily VoIP. I would recommend for anyone considering VoIP that they talk with a representative (in their office) from a privately-owned, busines VoIP company and not Vonage. These would be the companies that would have you purchase special routers and switches and VoIP phones by Cisco, Toshiba, et. al. And, a hybrid VoIP would be the way to go if you can afford it. A land fax line (you need one regular phone line anyway from what I understand) and a another dedicated POTS type line where it switches automatically during a Internet issue. And, there are always cell phones to dial out with. As one person stated, you do need QoS, which allows the special router/VoIP interface (for lack of a better word) to make phone calls priority over data.
It kind of cracked me up, though, when one person said, "We had (past tense)...that is kid of the definition of the word, "had."
I'm with you, though, once again. I can't wait until the pricing comes down with more providers in the market. One day, most ISPs will provide VoIP. The things you can do with VoIP are unbelievable, not the least of which is taking your phone from Bangor, Maine to a conference in San Francisco and plugging the ethernet cable into an Internet cable jack and having a phone which is just like at the office and calling everywhere at local charges.
One can also host his or her own VoIP in his or her own office, but it can get pricey. That's the problem overall with VoIP -- it is rather expensive. Unlike regular phone server where you pay by line connecting as many telephones as you wish at no extra charge, the VoIP phones connect to existing Internet data jacks; and each are referred to as "Seats." Each phone or seat costs per month. So, say a seat is $30 per month, if you have six phones, that would be $180 per month so you have to look at the overall cost.
Finally, and many may disagree with me here, but I believe strongly in the risk/benefit theory. Seroquel works great for Bipolar et al, but you have the risk of dystonic reactions and TD, etc. The patient has to decide. Well, with any technology you have to decide if there is a confidentiality risk. I personally can't worry incessantly about hackers listening in on my phone conversations. I really don't see Aetna, Cigna or BC/BS hiring hackers to listen in one conversations (even if possible) to try to determine if Mr. Smith is on Lipitor or has an MRI tomorrow especially when they already know he is on Lipitor and has an MRI scheduled. Besides the fact they can legally screw up and our patients, so why take the risk of getting caught and being the next Enron?
