Orac is the nom de blog of a (not so) humble pseudonymous surgeon/scientist with an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his miscellaneous verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few will. (Continued 
Given that my electronic leash is always with me and that ubiquitous pagers and cell phones make doctors reachable 24 hours a day, it's amazing to contemplate a time when a PA system at a hospital was considered new and high tech:
I especially like the part touting the volume control, as if that were some technological wonder that one wouldn't expect on a P.A. system!
Personally, when I see such a system, I can't help but think of the Three Stooges in Men In Black. Of course, when it comes to any paging system, be it a PA system or a pager, there are times when I feel like doing exactly what the Three Stooges did at the end of the short to the PA system that kept repeating, "Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard!"
Comments
They still existed about 19 years ago when I was getting my first sonograms for pregnancy #1.
The loudspeaker page that gave us the giggles were for a "Dr. Ballard"... especially since it was in Ballard Community Hospital:
http://www.swedish.org/body.cfm?id=2052
(not terribly far from where PZ Myers child was carded:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/07/our_friday_itinerary.php )
Posted by: HCN | July 8, 2007 2:42 PM
Amazing how Western Electric had its fingers in everything back then.
Posted by: Tony P | July 8, 2007 3:35 PM
If only those blaring television sets in the waiting rooms would go away as well.
Posted by: AnnR | July 8, 2007 4:42 PM
What's the date on that?
Posted by: khan | July 8, 2007 5:54 PM
Click on the picture, and you'll see. ;-)
Posted by: Orac | July 8, 2007 6:20 PM
For duty and humanity!
Posted by: Robert W. Donnell | July 8, 2007 10:51 PM
In the 1980's I worked in an MR center where we still had a loudspeaker paging system. I knew I had to leave there when I was in a supermarket one day, an announcement came on the speaker, and I was straining to hear if it was addressed to me.
Posted by: Joe | July 8, 2007 11:07 PM
"Emergency! Emergency! Paging Dr. Blog!"
Posted by: Alex | July 9, 2007 5:28 AM
"Will the owner of the purple and green Chevrolet Impala please remove it from the doctors' lounge"
[/old "Ben Casey" parody skit]
Posted by: Pieter B | July 9, 2007 1:59 PM