Laptops for a hospital - which ones and setup

ShawWellPete

ShawWellPete

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Hi guys,

From the Christian Blandford Fund I am going to buy some laptops that will be used by children patients in the hospital.

I am after some advice

1. Which laptops to buy? I think it is best to spend a bit of money as they need to be pretty rugged. The kids are bed bound so portability is not that important.

2. How to set them up. I don't want them to end up clogged up with malware and downloaded games and each kid will be using them for a relatively short period so I was thinking of somehow restoring them to a starting state on a regular basis?

I guess they will be mainly used for social networking, skype and web games so power is not all important.

I am happy to hear any suggestions!

Cheers

Pete
 
I spent just over 10 weeks in intensive care last summer and for about half of that time I was in no condition to make use of a laptop or any other computer etc..

I used my HP Netbook while in hospital connecting to the Internet via Bluetooth on my mobile phone, I also had a portable DVD player and my sister brought me the iPod touch that I am sending this from now ;)

My suggestion would be that you need to go for something as compact as possible, maybe with a DVD player built in...another thing is make sure that you supply some headphones the traditional type as apposed to the in ear type as if the operation of the computer will create sound/noise you need to consider the comfort of other patients..

I know I have not helped particularly on a technical front but I hope my experience helps to guide you

Matt
MWHCVT
 
One thing you will need to consider is infection control. Speak to the hospitals infection control officer. It would be terrible to spend a lot of money only to be told you can't let another patient use a computer.
 
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I've no experience of this at all but if, as Munch says, infection control is going to be an issue with laptops (and you could imagine it might in areas where patients have compromised immune systems) - would some sort of tablet PC be an option?

The actual surfaces would be much easier to clean (also use tear off screen protectors and dispose of them between each patient).

I'm not suggesting iPads for all but if there is some half decent Android tablet out there then you have cheap/free software, potentially more secure (against malware) and easy to factory reset.
 
Thanks guys, I'll be discussing it with the hospital management for infection control. In the meantime, if we go for laptops, what is the best way of resetting them to a set state?
 
On Apple laptops the guest user account defaults to the initial state each time the user logs off.
 
ShawWellPete said:
Thanks guys, I'll be discussing it with the hospital management for infection control. In the meantime, if we go for laptops, what is the best way of resetting them to a set state?
Click to expand...

you could just lock the system down once installed to the state you want it (tools available). or you could take an image of the system after a clean build and keep safe somewhere, then just restore the image if it ballses up. built in imaging in windows 7.
 
Still looking into this.

The hospital are fine with regular laptops but the more rugged they are the better.

Any suggestions for a well built rugged laptop?

How easy is it to make an image of the starting state and restore to this image regularly?

Cheers

Pete
 
ShawWellPete said:
Also has anybody used Microsoft Steady state to restore a PC?
Click to expand...

I've not used that particular part of it, but I have used it to lock out access to things like the control panel. Works quote well for that, just make sure you;ve created a second passworded account before you start. I'm also not 100% it's support by anything newer then windows XP. For more details it might well be worth having a dig round the http://www.edugeek.net/ forums.

Faronics Deep freeze is an alternative to this, but it does cost.

http://www.faronics.com/en/Products/DeepFreeze/DeepFreezeCorporate.aspx

Have you also thought about how you will provide an internet connection. As an institution providing internet access to children you have to consider all the safe guarding issues. Most school for instance do not allow access to social networking and chat sites as you have no idea who the children are making contact with.
 
KC Leblanc said:
I've not used that particular part of it, but I have used it to lock out access to things like the control panel. Works quote well for that, just make sure you;ve created a second passworded account before you start. I'm also not 100% it's support by anything newer then windows XP. For more details it might well be worth having a dig round the http://www.edugeek.net/ forums.

Faronics Deep freeze is an alternative to this, but it does cost.

http://www.faronics.com/en/Products/DeepFreeze/DeepFreezeCorporate.aspx

Have you also thought about how you will provide an internet connection. As an institution providing internet access to children you have to consider all the safe guarding issues. Most school for instance do not allow access to social networking and chat sites as you have no idea who the children are making contact with.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that - I am thinking about these ones

Network stuff is sorted thanks

They will run on Windows 7, from what I understand Steady State is XP only. I'll take a look at deep freeze
 
For brands, I'd consider buying Lenovo ThinkPads, they are often believed to be sturdy and rugged laptops.
 
Thinkpads for sure - taking in mind that the build quality of the old models is far better than the new ones. You should consider T3x T4x there're ebay lots and local dealers offering these laptops since they were mainly used by big Companies that eventually changed their gear :)
 
What do we think guys? these are charity rates...

1x Office Standard 2010 @ £53.99 each

1x Office Professional Plus 2010 @ £69.99 each (includes Access and Publisher)

Or shall I go for Open Office?
 
Actually I have just seen that the laptops come with

Microsoft Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook

I reckon that might be enough?
 
Have you considered tablets?

You can get a decent tablet that is much more powerful than an iPad for much cheaper. (A tablet manufactured in 2003 has more power than a first gen iPad.)
 
i agree with the tablet thing some people have suggested, would be fine for most people needs social networking and Skype. Loads of apps for people to play around on which could be better than web games and it would be easier to wipe down and make safe for people vulnerable to infections, plus if you were ill would you be more pleased if someone passed you a PC or a ipad (or any touch screen tablet)
just my thoughts.
Jack
 
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