Orlando Sentinel To Slam Healthcare Readiness Tomorrow

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Check it out tomorrow.

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), August 05, 1999

Answers

Wait till tomorrow morning, then try to click through to

www.orlandosentinel.com

Who knows, maybe the AARP crowd will be the first to freak.

or click here for hotlink

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), August 05, 1999.


Ignore hotlink above. Try this one:

real hotlink

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), August 05, 1999.


Puddintame,

Thanks for the "heads up"! My wife works in the healthcare field here in Central Florida, and she's been told by her employers to expect problems. Of course, it's of the "WE'RE ok, but we're not so sure of everybody else" variety. They seem especially concerned about Medicare, which is a large portion of their income.

It will be interesting to see if the Sentinel actually follows through, or just copies/pastes press releases.

Thanks again!

Don't get dizzy.

-- Spindoc' (spindoc_99_2000@2000.com), August 05, 1999.


Brian Williams on CNBC just confirmed that it will be a blistering piece. It's still not on the website at 10 pm CDT, though.

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), August 05, 1999.

to the top, want to remember this tomorrow and get the scoop

-- blistering (might@be.useful), August 05, 1999.


Here is the article:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/y2k/y080699_ready06_19.htm

-- Duane Schwingel (duane@mytalk.com), August 06, 1999.


Thanks, Duane. This article was mild! zzzzzz zzzzzz zzzzzzzz

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), August 06, 1999.

[For Educational Purposes]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/y2k/y080699_ready06_19.htm
Serious issues still linger, Y2K expert warns

Richard Burnett of The Sentinel Staff

Published in The Orlando Sentinel on August 6, 1999.

Although banks, phones and lights should roll into the New Year without incident, the nation's defense against the Y2K computer problem still has serious holes in it, the president's leading year 2000 expert warned Thursday.

While the country faces little risk of interruptions in most basic services, the "millennium bug" still poses a hazard to school systems, hospitals, 911 emergency-call systems, local governments and small businesses.

"The real concerns now are businesses and governments that are either taking a wait-and-see approach, got a late start in fixing their systems or are projecting late-year completion dates," said John A. Koskinen, chairman of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion.

"These organizations are placing themselves at risk of experiencing Y2K-related failures."

Government and industry have spent billions of dollars in an effort to fix the Y2K problem, which stems from a decades-old programming flaw that causes many computers to read years only by the last two digits. Left uncorrected, it could cause computers to read the year 2000 as 1900, which, in turn, could lead to error-riddled data or system failures.

Financial institutions, electric utilities, telecommunications companies and airlines have led the way in protecting themselves from Y2K problems, according to the council's latest report. Surveys indicate that those industries are 95 percent to 99 percent ready for the changeover from Dec. 31, 1999, to Jan. 1, 2000.

"I believe Americans can be confident that a number of vital industries . . . are now well-positioned to make a successful transition to the new millennium," Koskinen said.

Troubling questions remain, however, about other important areas of U.S. life, among them:

Health care. Sixty percent of the nation's hospitals were not ready for Y2K when surveyed this past spring. Fifteen percent had done nothing yet to prepare.

Education. About 70 percent of the country's local school systems, colleges and universities said they were not yet ready for Y2K when asked in a May government survey.

Local government. About one-fourth of the nation's counties had no Y2K plan at all when survey this spring by the National Association of Counties.

911 emergency-phone systems. Only 37 percent of the nation's 911 call centers -- most of which are operated by local governments -- were Y2K-compliant as of a June survey.

Small business. About 850,000 small businesses will not be prepared when Jan. 1 arrives, according to projections by the National Federation of Independent Business.

Thursday's report noted that comprehensive, reliable information about these areas is elusive because there are few organized efforts to collect it. By contrast, banks, utilities and airlines are required by regulators to document their Y2K efforts.

Rick Ridge, year 2000 project manager for Orlando Regional Health Care System, said the presidential report overlooks much of the progress hospitals have made in preparing for potential Y2K problems.

"In general, based on all the contacts we've had statewide, I believe Florida hospitals have done an excellent job," he said. "Even smaller hospitals are addressing the problem. They may take a different approach in some cases, because they have fewer dollars, but the result is the same."

Florida hospitals are documenting their Y2K work for the state's Agency for Health Care Administration, which is conducting audits for the governor's Y2K task force, Ridge said. All of ORHS' major systems are Y2K-compliant, he said, though the hospital system still has some minor issues to resolve.

Some Florida educators also questioned the latest findings.

"It's not surprising that if you get those kinds of answers in March," said Les Lloyd, vice president of information technology for Rollins Collins in Winter Park. "But if you surveyed the same group now and asked how many are putting in new software that is Y2K-compliant, I think you'd find 60 percent to 70 percent would say yes."

If the report is accurate about the state of local governments' computer systems, it's cause for serious concern, said John Matelski, Y2K project manager for the city of Orlando.

"But I do question who they surveyed," he said. "I know that Orlando and Orange County were never queried. A lot of Florida cities claim to be 80 percent to 90 percent ready, but they are still working on non-critical systems to become 100 percent."

Also, both the city's and the county's 911 systems are ready for Jan. 1, he said.

However, small-business consultants said the report re-emphasizes what many experts have been saying for some time.

"Not to be critical of small business owners, but the whole Y2K issue for them involves a collision between indifference and ignorance," said Dave Spraker, Y2K director for the Florida Manufacturing Technology Center, an Orlando-based consulting group affiliated with Enterprise Florida. "Many just can't get their mind around it, so it is easier to ignore."

-- Deborah (infowars@yahoo.com), August 06, 1999.


I was expecting something more impressive. This is just a rehash of Koskinen's remarks with a little local perspective. Nothing that couldn't be written in any town in America.

ZZZZZZZZZZ.

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), August 06, 1999.


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