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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bearcub who wrote (8521)	9/6/1999 7:39:00 PM
From: C.K. Houston	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9818

bearcub, I didn't do a search for "malpractice", but I'm sure there's a reference somewhere amongst the various links. This link is a VERY good source of information with up-to-date info on healthcare. rx2000.org Here's an interesting excerpt from an interview done just a few weeks ago: ============================================================ Y2K EMERGENCY: AUGUST 5, 1999 TOM BEARDEN: But even after three years and $20 million, there are still non-complaint devices in the hospital, like this $24,000 bedside monitor. Jim Young is director of the college's biomedical engineering department. JIM YOUNG, Medical College of Georgia: Because when you advance the date from 1999 to year 2000 it defaults back to 1980. I can show you that. There's the July 21, 1999, and when you increase the date, it goes to 1980. TOM BEARDEN: If it isn't fixed, the monitor will record false data. The hospital will install a free, upgraded microchip before the end of the year, but other biomedical devices couldn't be fixed and had to be replaced. For example, modern intravenous pumps use microchips to meter dosages, and some models would simply stop working when the date rolls over to 2000. JIM YOUNG: This particular device -- which delivers IV fluids -- has a program in it for calculating drug dose. In that calculation you have to enter the patient's age. And certainly when you want to enter age, it includes a month, date and a year. And with the millennium bug, if you don't have a four-digit number, if it rolls over to 00, you have no way of knowing whether it's the year 2000 or 1900. TOM BEARDEN: So it would throw the device haywire in terms of trying to calculate what the correct dosage would be? JIM YOUNG: It would not calculate it. TOM BEARDEN: As a result, the hospital had to replace all 525 of the $1,200 devices with new leased units. DWAIN SHAW, Medical College of Georgia: What this represents ..... TOM BEARDEN: Dwain Shaw heads the hospital's Y2K task force. He says there were literally thousands of such devices to be considered ... rx2000.org ============================================================ If all healthcare providers have someone managing programs, who are as bright and knowledgeable as Dwain Shaw ... and have Board of Directors who are willing to increase budget and allocate funds for this fix ... then problems should be minimized. But, unfortunately, that's not the case. Cheryl 116 Days until 2000