I apologize, this came from Computerworld recently, not sure if
I got off this thread or another, but here is one take on hospital
problems with Year 2k. Hospitals are pretty far behind.
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Year 2000: Hospitals diagnose themselves in critical condition
Thomas Hoffman
ORLANDO, FLA. - You've heard all the dire warnings about avoiding air travel
on Jan. 1, 2000, because of millennium bugs in air traffic control systems and
aircraft cockpit gear, right?
Well, you might want to avoid being hospitalized when the century turns. It might
just save your life.
Industry executives at the 1998 Annual Healthcare Information and
Management Systems Society conference and exhibition held here last week said
many hospitals are far behind in correcting the date-sensitive bugs in computer
systems that track everything from electronic patient records to accounting
systems.
Nearly seven out of eight health care organizations risk year 2000-related
systems failures largely because of their lack of responsiveness, according to a
report issued at the conference by Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Group, Inc.
Far more critical, the health industry executives said, is the lack of effort being
made to diagnose the impact on biomedical equipment, such as ventilators and
other life-support systems with embedded hardware and software (see chart).
It doesn't help that ''thousands [of biomedical equipment makers] have been
wishy-washy'' about addressing the year 2000 compliance of their machines, said
Kimberly A. Kalajainen, a consultant at Arthur Andersen LLP.
''I thought we were an anomaly'' for being so far behind with year 2000 project
work, ''but I came to this conference and found that we're in the same boat as
just about everyone else,'' said Anne MacPhee, director of finance and corporate
services at The Canadian Red Cross Society in Toronto.
''There doesn't seem to be senior management commitment from many
organizations'' in dealing with the year 2000 problem, she said. Since the year
2000 crisis ''isn't going away, sometimes it requires creative approaches for
funding'' until that commitment is made, said MacPhee, referring to how some
organizations have been drawing funding from their administrative budgets to
pay for year 2000 projects. MacPhee wouldn't disclose how her organization is
dealing with the funding issue.
The industry's cost-conscious managed care environment is contributing
significantly to hospitals' millennium malaise, said Andrew Rushmere, president
of Aviant Information, Inc., a systems integrator in Simi Valley, Calif. ''I don't
know a health care organization that isn't cash-constrained, and that's affecting
year 2000'' efforts, Rushmere said.
An acceleration in mergers and acquisitions among hospitals, aimed at lowering
combined operating expenses, ''are slow, step-by-step efforts. No single person
has year 2000 tattooed on his forehead'' and is taking responsibility for project
work after the deals are completed, said Russ Ricci, general manager of IBM's
Global Healthcare in Waltham, Mass.
The decision by Sisters Hospital to join the Catholic Network, an affiliation of
seven Buffalo, N.Y.-area hospitals, helped delay the launch of the hospital's year
2000 project last year by three to four months, said Amy Clay, director of IS at
the 320-bed facility.
NOT HOMEGROWN
A possible silver lining for Sisters Hospital and other institutions is that most
hospitals opt for the buy-vs.-build approach to software. But while that reduces
the resources required to fix homegrown systems, hospitals will still be
challenged to ''make sure vendors don't slip on delivery dates,'' said Eric B.
Yablonka, vice president and chief information officer at the Hospital of St.
Raphael, a 511-bed acute care facility in New Haven, Conn.
Half of Marion General Hospital's information technology vendors have been
silent about whether they are fixing their systems, said Daniel W. Wright,
administrative director of IS at the 230-bed hospital in Marion, Ind. Fortunately,
nearly all of the systems in question, including a nursing staffing station system,
aren't critical to the hospital's operations, Wright said.
''We're prioritizing,'' Wright said. ''Some databases people are using for
record-keeping just aren't going to get fixed.''
St. Raphael's launched its $4.7 million millennium project in 1996, well before
many hospitals. Yet Yablonka acknowledged, ''We do not have the problem
licked.'' For example, his team recently uncovered 18 ventilators that were
noncompliant. Fortunately, the ventilators are covered for repairs under the
hospital's maintenance agreements.
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