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

To: John Mansfield who wrote (2199)	7/19/1998 10:41:00 AM
From: John Mansfield	Respond to of 9818

' "Healthcare's Year 2000 Information Clearinghouse" Why a Web Site Specifically for Health Care? There are many good web sites available that deal with the Year 2000 business and systems issues. They provide cross-industry information on Year 2000, and you will want to spend some time at these other sites. Through our Rx2000 Solutions Institute home page you can link directly to many of them (although we do hope you will return to us). Health care has some fundamental characteristics and Year 2000 issues that set it apart from many other industries. We face some unique challenges, including some potentially life threatening issues that may arise from the Year 2000 problem. For example: Health care is the largest industry in the U.S. Yet it is a diverse and fragmented industry consisting of some large players (e.g., insurance, managed care, and health care delivery organizations) and going all the way down to individual providers of care. We do not have a "Big 3" to drive the Year 2000 compliance efforts for the industry. Virtually all of these players have a Year 2000 problem whether they realize it or not. It cannot be ignored, yet it needs to be addressed differently by different players. The health care community is tightly intertwined with many organizational interdependencies. Physicians rely on hospitals. Hospitals rely on physicians, labs, medical devices, pharmaceutical and other health care supply organizations, ambulances, utility companies, food and linen suppliers, etc. (top of page) Most health care organizations are able to absorb a small number of delays and equipment or service breakdowns. They are not designed or staffed to survive a large number of systems or supplier problems occurring at the same time. For example, significant delays in food, linen, or medical supply deliveries could quickly impact quality of care and possibly shut down the hospital. In many areas, the health care delivery system has been reduced in size (e.g., number of hospitals and beds), and cannot easily absorb a significant number of organizational failures in the local community. The health care system relies heavily upon dates and time intervals. Care plans, dosages, lab results, reminder notices, expiration dates, etc. all depend upon accurate calculations. Some medical devices have already demonstrated that they will shut down or malfunction as a result of Year 2000 issues. The problem at this point is that we do not know which devices will continue to operate normally, which ones will shut down or fail in obvious ways, and which ones will appear to operate normally while producing erroneous results (this last category may be the most dangerous of all). (top of page) As of this writing, most health care organizations have done little or nothing to prepare for Year 2000 or to address the organizational and care threatening issues. A health care community wake-up call is needed, and yet when the community does wake up to the issues, it may be too late to find resources or adequately deal with the issues before January 1, 2000. It is becoming obvious that quality of care will be impacted. We don't know how much, or when the problems will start. The potential exists for unnecessary deaths resulting from Year 2000 issues, but we don't know if that is a small potential or a near certainty. No organization has ever had to deal with this problem before, and the true extent of the problem and the effectiveness of corrective actions has not been demonstrated. For these reasons, the founders of the Rx2000 Solutions Institute became very concerned about health care's ability to adequately deal with the Year 2000 issues. As health care professionals and consumers of health care, we want to do everything we can to ensure a smooth, uninterrupted transition of health care into the next century. This was the motivation that led us to found the Institute and to create this web site. We are committed to creating an information clearinghouse and set of services specifically to help health care organizations deal with the Year 2000. We intend that this web site and our services will rapidly evolve over the coming months until the crisis has passed. Please let us know what more we can do to be of greater service to the health care community. rx2000.org

To: John Mansfield who wrote (2199)	7/19/1998 3:54:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9818

' On Wednesday, Senator Robert Bennett (R-Utah), who is chairman of the Senate's special Year 2000 Committee, told the National Press Club that if Jan. 1, 2000 came tomorrow, we could lose Western civilization. This is extremely strong language on Y2K from a national politician -- the strongest I have read so far. I think he is telling the truth. On Monday morning, July 21, I will publish a brief analysis of his speech, and suggest what individuals had better do to protect themselves. This will appear in my e-mail newsletter, "Gary North's REALITY CHECK." Previously, I have sent it only to large donors to the nonprofit foundation I run (at no salary) and to a select portion of the subscribers to my investment newsletter, REMNANT REVIEW. Because I take Senator Bennett's warning seriously, I am now opening subscriptions to REALITY CHECK, free of charge, to those who have ordered BLIND MAN'S BLUFF. To subscribe in time to receive my report on Bennett's speech, do this: 1. Send an e-mail to: mailto:list-request@metanet.net 2. In the MESSAGE box type: subscribe remnant-list 3. Leave the SUBJECT box blank ___ This is from Gary North. John