To: John Mansfield who wrote (82 ) 2/8/1998 1:41:00 PM From: John Mansfield Respond to
'Chances are, you'll be at the hospital on equipment patrol.' amhpi.com amhpi.com : ASHMM is the leading national society for executives in the health care material resources profession and prepares our members to be well-qualified in this field. Through networking, education, recognition, information and advocacy, ASHMM fills the professional needs of our members and related professionals. 'amhpi.com :ÿ ÿGot big plans for New Year's Eve 1999? Well, cancel them. Chances are, you'll be at the hospital on equipment patrol. You, and a small army of doctors, nurses, clinical engineers, equipment managers and anybody else who might be able to avert a crisis if computerized medical devices fail or malfunction at midnight. But most have overlooked a big piece of the "Y2K" puzzle: medical devices and equipment with embedded microprocessors, or chips, that use date-sensitive logic. There's evidence that those devices will be hit by the bug, too. (See page 22 for contact information about this and other resources.) Before starting the institute, Ackerman was vice-president of international information systems for United Healthcare Corp., Minnetonka, Minn.each institution has to query every manufacturer whose devices they use. The logistics, the manhours, the paperwork, and the expense of doing that is prohibitive. We're breaking our necks to get it done, but we feel fortunate, because we started early and we have a large clinical engineering group backed by administrative support."
