Scary response

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

The following incident has been modified to protect identities but the substance is quite real.

A good friend of mine on the West coast is a major administrative figure in a large academic medical center. At a meeting last week, he was placed in charge of evaluating their Y2K compliance of everything OTHER than their mainframe/network. This is actually a lot of stuff and includes things like MRI, CAT scanners, ultrasound equipment and other standalone systems. (Note: obviously they are getting started WAY late!!). Much of the radiology equipment is non-compliant. The manufacturers told him this only when directly asked. My friend asked when he could expect the software updates and a price quote, he was told the EARLIEST would be October of 1999. In other words, don't count on your equipment working properly on Y2K. By the way, the manufacturer is the same company that built many of the US nuclear reactors!! Doesn't give you a lot of confidence.

-- Ronald Herring (drherr@erols.com), September 07, 1998

Answers

Do you know if the non-compliance will lead to equipment failure or just irritation. If failure, does this mean that certain medical procedures cannot be carried out. Thanks.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), September 08, 1998.

Might be both ways: consider medicines. If the program gets a bad date calculated, it says "Everything onthis shelf is 99 years old." The rules say: "If outdated, throw out."

But does the person (doctor) actually throw out the medicine? Some government bureacrats would insist the doctor throw it away, some older, wiser, bureacrats will not. Most doctors would ignore the list, I hope.

(Some brain dead illerate assistants would read the list and do it anyway.)

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (cook.r@csaatl.com), September 08, 1998.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ