No worry about Y2K in hospitals, U.S. survey shows

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fears about the millennium bug may make some people wary about flying on New Year's Eve, but anyone unfortunate enough to be in hospital will probably be safe from its effects, a survey published Wednesday shows.

Virtually all hospitals questioned by the American Hospital Association said they fully expected to have dealt with any problems stemming from the progression from ``99'' to ``00'' on their computer systems by December 31.

The survey found that around 13 percent of hospitals are already ``Y2K compliant'' -- meaning they have corrected any problems -- and about 84 percent of hospitals say they will be by the end of the year or expect to have no problems.

Just half a percent of the 2,000 hospitals contacted said they expected to have problems.

The millennium problem, often referred to as Y2K for year 2000, arises because many older computers record dates using only the last two digits of the year. If left uncorrected, such systems could treat the year 2000 as the year 1900, generating errors or system crashes next Jan. 1.

Much hospital equipment uses computers -- including scanners, heart monitors and the computers that keep track of patient records.

In the survey, about six percent of hospitals said their medical devices are currently Y2K compliant and 90 percent said they would be in time.

About 13 percent said their information systems were ready and another 53 percent said they would be ready by December 31.

Also Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services said it had completed Y2K work on 91 percent of its critical systems. President Bill Clinton ordered all agencies to be ready by March 31.

-- Norm (nwo@hotmail.com), April 01, 1999

Answers

Sounds like a page right out of DR. Death's training manual. Got undertakers?

-- SCOTTY (BLehman202@aol.com), April 01, 1999.

"The survey found that around 13 percent of hospitals are already Y2K compliant - meaning they have corrected any problems-and about 84 percent of hospitals say they will be by the end of the year or expect to have no problems" OR

84% of the hospitals are not y2k compliant, and some of these do not expect to be. However, they feel everything will be OK anyway. 13% claim they are y2k compliant.

"In the survey, about ........by December 31" OR

90% of the hospitals said their medical devices were not y2k compliant, while only 6% claimed their devices were.

At best, only 6% of the hospitals could claim y2k compliancy at this survey, and we all know that when surveys are completed, only the absolute truth is reported. No fudging? Oh really. Got health?

-- D. Bittner (rushmore@dailypost.com), April 01, 1999.

And that 6% where probably counting their thermometers and enema bags as embedded devices. (Sorry I couldn't help it.)

-- Lilly (staywell@new.year), April 01, 1999.

Lilly -- LOL!!

-- rick blaine (y2kazoo@hotmail.com), April 01, 1999.