Hospital emergency room electromagnetic environment

The electromagnetic environment of the emergency room of an urban hospital was estimated, characterizing electric fields over a 4.4-day period. Measured fields did not exceed 1 V/m over the 0.1-1 GHz range, but exhibited substantial day-night variation. Such temporal variation was characterized with respect to intensity and frequency of emissions. The observed field level variation implied a substantial temporal variation of electromagnetic-interference-malfunction risk to medical equipment. This risk tended to be highest during the daytime, early evening and weekends.