I work for one of the largest hospitals in our state (located in the Northwest). First, a little info about the Y2K work being done at my hospital.

In the beginning of this year the hospital provided the employees with an internal Y2K website listing the readiness of the hospital. They started to provide meeting minutes from IR, legal, engineering, etc. The minutes indicated they expected some serious problems. They began providing articles related to the healthcare industry, and other crucial info. Articles where Bennett and GAO state "Medicare won't make it", etc.

The hospital launched their contingency planning team in May of 99. They began distributing their meeting minutes on the website, the team was to meet every week for the remainder of the year. They got through the first two weeks, and stopped posting them. When you look on the contingency meeting schedule, a lot of the meetings have been canceled.

The hospital announced in Jan. 99 they would be complete by June. That came and went, they are still no where near finished. They announced in Feb. 99 that they would conduct a scheduled Y2K disaster scenario in May of 99. That came and went. Now they are announcing one for Oct. 99. They have completed a Y2K contingency plan - about 400 pages worth. I was very interested in it when it appeared but as I looked through it, it is the exact same disaster plan that we have been using for the past 10 years with a different Cover - Y2K Contingency Plan. It appears some genius ran the old disaster plan down to Kinko's and had 3 or 4 dozen printed up with the Y2K Contingency Plan cover. It appears they have put absolutely no thought what so ever into contingencies for Y2K, but they have accomplished one step they needed to, that's to keep JACO off their backs (the accreditation commission).

There is no leadership in the hospital (sounds like Uncle Sam - huh). The hospital has put reports on its site that indicate that if things go bad, we will be inundated by the public - nursing homes, etc., all looking for somewhere to go. They began to provide info for the employees that they were going to bring trailers (mobile homes) into the parking lot to keep the families of workers on the premises so that the nursing staff would show up. That info is now all gone. The administration now says no problems - nothing to fear but fear itself. The contingency plan for security and employees in the manual is BLANK. What chance does a company have if it has not made contingencies for its number one asset, its employees?

The hospital is having a contingency meeting on September 20th that I will be attending. I want to be prepared as possible going into this meeting with as much research as I can. The hospital is a key part of the area, if the hospital goes down, or is not properly prepared for the influx of people, what chance does the community as a whole have?

I have been a lurker on the forum since mid 98 (posted a few times), and have come to rely on the tremendous info that this forum produces. I truly believe this forum and the regulars are making a big difference in many peoples lives. My family and I have been prepared for the better part of the year and or bracing for an 8+. I am now interested in trying to get the hospital and the community moving. Here is where I need your help. Specifically, I am interested in links, quotes and articles devoted to Y2k in the following areas and any other you believe could help:

1. Medicaid/Medicare industry

2. GAO reports on Hospital and health care industry

3. Pharmaceutical industry (including quotes and links on how much of the raw materials are shipped from over seas)

4. Integration of the systems - I saw a great post on this about 1 week ago.

5. I have been looking for the link to Robin Guineer's (Head of UK task force 2000) quote on "No one knows how this thing is going to play out, but it is very difficult to be optimistic particularly if you look at the global situation, but we are much more likely to have panic amongst an uninformed populous than an informed one".

6. Has anyone seen any articles on the Gov't increasing its campaign to the public to the seriousness of Y2K - I heard Paula Gordon confirm that this would start to happen in October.

7. Need a link to February's Senate report on Health Care.

8. Need a link to the quote that health care makes up 1/7 of the countries economy.

9. Need a link to GM's CEO stating "that GM is facing a catastrophe"!!

10. I remember a quote "Y2K has the potential to be one of the most devastating disasters in this country" (or something to that effect). I not sure of the link - possibly the Senate report on Feb. 22 - any ideas?

Again, any and all info that you think might help to make these people think about how important health care is and what may happen to the community as a whole if TSHTF. Thanks so much for your help in this - I will check back with you and let you know how the meeting went. I am using one of my real email addresses so I will check it on a daily basis.

Thanks again - Matt

-- Matt (Butenam1@aol.com), September 04, 1999

Answers

Matt,

NorthWest HUH?

Could you be a little more specific as to what part of the NorthWest please?

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), September 04, 1999.

Hey Cheri, why don't we have him post the address so he can get himself fired? Duh.

Good luck dude, you're going to need it. I have seen huge portions of corporate america treating Y2K like it was some BS that those nerds dreamed up. Boy are they in for a shock. You are to be commended for trying to change this. Unfortunately, I fear that it is far to late in the game for the dino's to join in and get this moving in the right direction. Lot's of people are gonna get hurt. Sorry to be so neg. but on the upside, I know my area Emerg. Mgmt. Services have already purchased tractor trailer size gens. to keep hospitals etc. running. Check with yours, some proof at that level may wake up even the most braindead beaurocrat. If they have not done this, make certain someone is thinking about power. You're hosed without it.

-- Gordon (g_gecko_69@hotmail.com), September 04, 1999.

Matt, I admire your courage!

Take a look at this thread, you might want to order the video from C-Span who aired Jim Lord and Paula Gordon this morning.

http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001Lny

-- Chris (%$^&^@pond.com), September 04, 1999.

Matt, it just hit me that your first priority in contengency planning for your hospital should be that the staff have their own personal contengency plans.

No staff showing up, no hospital.

Take a look at this excellent thread also

http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001Lqw

-- Chris (%$^&^@pond.com), September 04, 1999.

Matt,

I think it's time for you to face some hard realities. They don't want any further input from you. They know what the deal is. They have looked at it, in depth, the same as the Koskinen team has, and come to the conclusion that there is virtually little they can do in the time remaining. The oil industry has made the same decision. You are not dealing with DGIs there, you are dealing with fatalists, who have less than 4 months to go. How do you plan for stoppage of the Medicare and Medicaid payment flow? Insurance company data losses?

Matt, there is an old serenity prayer that goes something like this: God grant me the courage to change the things in life that I can, the ability to accept the things I can't change, and the wisdom to know the difference. Perhaps someone here knows the exact wording, but it speaks of the basic dilemma we all face, every day.

-- Gordon (gpconnolly@aol.com), September 04, 1999.

Try this again [T-AIMD-99-209] Year 2000 Computing Challenge: Concerns About Compliance Information on Biomedical Equipment Year 2000 Computing Challenge: Concerns About Compliance Information on Biomedical Equipment (Testimony, 06/10/1999, GAO/T-AIMD-99-209).

[AIMD-99-243] Year 2000 Computing Crisis: Status of Medicare Providers Unknown Year 2000 Computing Crisis: Status of Medicare Providers Unknown (LetterReport, 07/28/1999, GAO/AIMD-99-243).

Survey of Manufacturers of Computer-Controlled Potentially High Risk Medical Devices Regarding Year 2000 Status July 2, 1999 that FDA provide, as soon aspossible, independent assurance that the manufacturers of computer - controlled potentially high risk medical devices have properly assessed the Y2K status of their computer - controlled medical devices

DEA Controlled Substances: Proposed Revised Aggregate Production Quotas for 1999 August 20, 1999 The DEA is aware of concerns regarding a potential increase in sales due to customer stockpiling for Y2K. In response to this issue,the DEA has adjusted the aggregate production quotas to include the allowable maximum of 50 percent inventory

Medicare Program; Year 2000 Readiness Letters August 4, 1999 These letters from the Administrator are part of an extensive out reach effort that the agency has undertaken to keep health care providers informed about the status of HCFA's Y2K readiness

-- Brian (imager@home.com), September 04, 1999.

"DEA Controlled Substances: Proposed Revised Aggregate Production Quotas for 1999 August 20, 1999 The DEA is aware of concerns regarding a potential increase in sales due to customer stockpiling for Y2K. In response to this issue,the DEA has adjusted the aggregate production quotas to include the allowable maximum of 50 percent inventory "

What an interesting site.

I never knew the DEA was authorizing and managing the legal production of LSD and heroin.

Can someone explain to me *why* that stuff is being manufactured, and *who* the "customers" are?

Since they are completely illegal, I'm gonna go out on a limb and venture a guess that "the customer" is the government itself.

Scary thought.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), September 04, 1999.

Matt,

My hospital went around putting Y2K-OK stickers on all the equipment. No testing, no review, nada... Then they held a meeting and announced themselves "compliant". The PCs around the hospital are hooked to a lab running early 80's software (very NOT compliant), the admissions, financial stuff is running on a non-compliant version of CICS. I told them months ago (gently) that they had severe problems. No response, I'm crazy - no need to be alarmist etc, etc.

Forget trying to help your hospital. There have been consistent (an increasing) JAE problems since the first of the year. My departmental reports are useless. Its way too late. Keep your head down. If you have any influence, try to keep your inhouse census WAY down for Rollover. Its the only sane defense/contingency at this point.

-- RDH (drherr@erols.com), September 04, 1999.

Seems your priorities are the same as the rest of us- first, yourself and your family, next your friends and coworkers, then your community. I assume, since you say you have been lurking for a while, that you are well on the way to preparing your family. Coworkers - is there general consensus that your hospital is in deep doodoo, or are most still clueless? Can you encourage coworkers to attend to their own families preparations without endangering your job? There is enough general information that the health care industry is at risk that you should be able to encourage preps without getting specific if you need cover.

Then we come to the community. If yours is the largest hosp. in the area and it goes down, there will be a whole lot of people affected. Unless you are the only one in the hospital that would have the information you do, you might consider anonymous reports to emergency services agencies, home health care agencies, social service agencies, pharmacies, or even the local paper to get the word out that people should be taking steps NOW to get medications and get needed medical care in advance of Y2K. The resultant public awareness and pressure may even get some more effective contingency plans made... and in any case it will get the population more prepared. Another source of information is Gary North's Health Care Catagory: http://ww w.garynorth.com/y2k/results_.cfm/Health_Care

Good luck.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), September 04, 1999.

Matt,

Your questions are valid and relevant, and there is a great of useful information that others have provided on this threat should be helpful to you ... but I hope you realize that little or none of it has to do with the specific topic of contingency planning that supposedly forms the main agenda for your Sep 20th meeting.

Contingency planning basically says: even if we think we've fixed everything and tested everything, we acknowledge the possibility that something could go wrong. And if it DOES go wrong, what's out fallback position? What's our "plan B"?

To address that, I think you need to start by identifying the five, or ten, or twenty areas in which a disruption would have the greatest impact. Loss of electric power, water, HVAC, sewage, and telecommunications are probably at the top of your list. Loss of key staff has got to be pretty high, too -- if the nurses and doctors don't show up because they're stuck at home with their own emergencies, you won't be able to run the hospital even if you don't have any Y2K technical problems.

When you analyze those key areas of impact, make sure you get the stakeholders to discuss the consequences in terms of DURATION of disruption -- i.e., what happens if the power is out for a few minutes, a few hours, a few days, a few weeks, a few months, or a few years? In a lot of office environments, it turns out that nobody would even notice if a computer system was down for a few minutes; and they wouldn't care if it was out for a few hours. After a few days, it has a noticeable impact on productivity, customer service, etc. That's usually the point where the contingency plan has to kick in, and it usually has to cover disruptions lasting a few weeks, or possibly a few months. But if you say to the senior managers, "What do you expect us to do, by way of a contingency plan, if mission-critical X is unavailable for a year?", they'll often say, "If things get that bad, we're all screwed, and we might as well shut the place down."

There are very few, if any, SPECIFIC contingency plans that are available for public examination -- every organization tends to be very proprietary, if not paranoid, about sharing such information. But you can find general recommendations and templates on various web sites; www.mitre.org (or is it mitre.gov? or mitre.com?) is a good place to start. I think the Small Business Administration and a few other government sites have also got some templates and guidelines; unfortunately, I don't have a list of such URL's handy at the moment.

Best of luck in your venture!

Ed Yourdon

-- Ed Yourdon (HumptyDumptyY2K@yourdon.com), September 04, 1999.

Matt Actually I was able to find some Health contingency plans.

Year/2000 Risk Management and Cost Reduction Strategies for Survival and Success - Brackman, Ira

Contingency Planning and Continuity of Operations for Year/2000 - Franklin, William S.

Year 2000 (Risk and Contingency) - Information Technololgy Support Center

Two Techniques For Preforming Painful Triage - Myers, Daniel

National Contingency Planning Group - National Defence Canada< /li>

Contingency Planning - Reid, Warren S.

Assessing the Risk Associated with a Year 2000 Project - Rubin, Howard A. and Robbins, Brian

Y2K Contingency Plan Guidelines - State of Utah

Y2K Event Management - Y2K Command Centre Issues - Steve Davis

Year 2000 Contingency Planning - The Association of Insurance and Risk Managers

A Definition of Year 2000 Conformity Requirements - The DISC (Delivering Information Solutions to Cust

Contingency planning for a safe year 2000 - The Health and Safety Executive (U.K.)

Y2K Contingency Management Plan Outline - The MITRE Corp. & Electronic Systems Center

2000 Business Continuity Planning Manuals - The Odin Group

Compliance Guidelines - The Trustees of Indiana University

Contingency Planning: Establishing a Year/2000 Fallback Position - Ulrich, William M.

Patient Focused Year 2000 Contingency Planning Guide - Veterans Administration Hospital

Year 2000 Risk Assessment - Washington State Year 2000 Program

Creating A Comprehensive Y2K Contingency Plan - Y2K Experts

-- Brian (imager@home.com), September 04, 1999.

font off

-- Brian (imager@home.com), September 04, 1999.

Denial of all serious possibilities reigns supreme.

-- Bill Byars (billbyars@softwaresmith.com), September 05, 1999.

<Need a link to GM's CEO stating "that GM is facing a catastrophe"!!>

Hot link to FORTUNE MAGAZINE - April 27, 1998 article, "Industry Wakes Up to Year 2000 Menace" no longer works ...

"Unfounded gloom and doom? Not if you listen to Ralph J. Szygenda, chief information officer at General Motors, whose staff is now feverishly correcting what he calls "catastrophic problems" in every GM plant."

Email me and I can send you the entire article.

-- Cheryl (Ckufta@internetcds.com), September 05, 1999.

The International Y2K Cooperation site has a lot of useful information and links to other "official" information.

U.S. Readiness form, filled out by Koskinen

You might want to look at the main page to get a feel for its layout. International Y2K Cooperation

-- mommacarestx (harringtondesignX@earthlink.net), September 05, 1999.

I am just link challenged today. That form is at

http://www2.iy2kcc.org/CountryStatus/default.cfm?Country= United%20States

Remove everything after .org/ to see their main page.

-- mommacarestx (harringtondesignX@earthlink.net), September 05, 1999.

From the Senate hearing held in June on the medical industry.

(snip)

June 10, 1999 OPENING STATEMENt SENATOR CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, VICE-CHAIRMAN SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON THE YEAR 2000 TECHNOLOGY HEARING: PREPARING FOR Y2K TRIAGE IN HEALTHCARE

From the very beginning of my involvement with Y2K, I have been concerned about the impact Y2K would have on the healthcare industry. Y2K-related failures can prevent life saving devices from working, choke the supply chain of medical products, and cripple the financing of healthcare. We have all heard about embedded chips found in ventilators or heart defibrillators and the Y2K vulnerabilities of these devices. Our hearing last July resulted in the revelation that the biomedical device manufacturers were not providing forthright disclosure to either the Committee or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In September, I raised my concerns on the Senate floor about the impact of non-compliant medical devices on the healthcare industry, hospitals, and human life. I even had to resort to naming names of companies who would not disclose the Y2K readiness of their products.

Almost a year later, we are receiving more information, but my concerns remain. In a review of the web sites where manufacturers have reported they have made information available to customers, 80 manufacturers web sites contained insufficient information and several web sites were inaccessible. There are literally thousands of hospitals, with hundreds of thousands of embedded systems, and only 204 days to hammer out all the problems. This is clearly an area where we must be on time. There is too much at stake to be late.

The General Accounting Office has found that of the medical device manufacturers, who are willing to disclose Y2K readiness, approximately 14% of those devices are non-compliant! We will hear more about these numbers in testimony later today. This 14% is a very difficult number to understand until you begin to drill down to the organizations such as hospitals both urban and rural, nursing homes and doctors offices.

(snip)The Inspector General of Health and Human Services recently conducted a survey of hospitals, nursing homes and physicians. The HHS survey reaffirms how little is known about the Y2K readiness of healthcare providers. For example, the Y2K readiness of 69% of the rural hospitals in the U.S. is not known. Likewise the Y2K-readiness of 77% of urban hospitals is also in question. The absence of information on readiness of healthcare providers does not end with hospitals. The Y2K readiness of 79% of all nursing homes is also unknown. In fact even physician offices present troubling questions. 70% of all urban physicians and 80% of all rural physicians have failed to respond to HHS surveys. (snip)

Y2K contingency planning for the healthcare industry requires a higher level of commitment than normal business continuity planning. The Committee has heard from some hospitals that even though they have been very proactive on Y2K, they may only receive emergency cases during the last week of December and the first two weeks of January. This means all non-emergency procedures, including elective surgeries, could be cancelled for that three-week period. The suspension of non-emergency surgeries would open up physical space and allow hospitals to move their long-term patients to the first floor. Typically, when there is a loss of power only the first few floors of a hospital are powered by backup generators. For previously admitted, critical patients who rely on biomedical monitoring equipment, medical staff will be assigned to each room to monitor patient progress personally.

Some hospitals have indicated that they are going so far as to stockpile medication and consumable medical products. Human life is precious and the medical industry is the first line of defense when life is threatened.(snip)

The url is

http://www.senate.gov/~y2k/hearings/990610/st990610dodd.htm

If you remove everything after hearings/ you get the page that links to all the hearings the Senate Y2K committee has held.

-- mommacarestx (harringtondesignX@earthlink.net), September 05, 1999.

-- (.@...), September 05, 1999.

Matt,

Sorry to hear of the situation. It does seem that the Admin group has opted for the 'happy face' approach. In that case you are a dead duck if you try to discuss this seriously (or publicly). You are a sincere person who wants to make a difference. Unfortunately you are being managed by people who have made decisions which are completely at odds with what makes sense to you.

There are four options:

1) Let them lead and fail 2) Challenge their leadership and be fired 3) Quit and start a public awareness campaign 4) combined 2 and 3

I have opted for 1 myself. We have seen how the entire country seems to be in the grip of 'executive power' so to speak. No one wants to even think about this stuff. Too scary. Let the good times roll. Deal with it when we get there. We seem to have absorbed the mode fo thinking which dominates the executive culture for the past 20 years or so. Trying to fight that..well it just won't make a difference in most cases and you will be used as an example to reenforce the lessons the admin types are constantly pushing: go with the flow or we will get rid of you.

Actually the only hope for your community is the nursing staff. I don't hold out much hope there but its worth a shot. they actually live out in the broader community (not an exclusive suburb) and probably will be the only ones who can provide care for the community should the centralized service centers (hospitals) fail. They will need to know about public health issues, communicable diseases, natural remedies, etc. Most hospital nurses do not have this knowledge because they specialize in hospital centric care. Possibly you could approach the local nursing association to float the idea.

-- ..- (dit@dot.dash), September 05, 1999.

(Quick Note: Brian trying to fix your HTML, per your request, but need assist from the other Sysops... whatever you're doing is a tad too confusing to me. It's the long weekend too, so will try to correct... soon. -- Diane)

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 05, 1999.

Hhhmmm, Dit Dot Dash, we hospital nurses DO have generalized knowledge even though we are "assigned" on "hospital centric" wards. Hospitals today dash through so many acutely ill patients, with such an eye for the bottom line, that the staff is required to rotate "for the greater good of the hospital" to floors other than their specialty, and perform optimally even without an iota of floating orientation. Pressure. And so many patients end up distributed on Floors other than their ideal categorized destination. Depends on beds, census, spur-of-the-moment conditions, diversion, etc.

We spent way too much time doing the musical bed transfer routine at the desperate behest of the Night Admin, juggling pleas from other hospitals, life flight, family, Drs, pts, incoming, emergency, etc.

What, he's an isolation patient and you put him in with the girl who's having her bone marrow transplant in 4 days? $#!+, you moron, the son is a lawyer -- call that cancer team and move that body NOW!

The memories ... ;^)

Approaching the local nursing association is a dead end. Entrenched in the higher.archy and not a good career move to make even the tiniest wave. Really, hospitals are toast and there's no point getting burnt trying to sound the alarm -- they made a conscious decision to evade Y2K as "not our problem."

As soon as we realized Y2K's potential, we quit. No way Jose we were going to be imprisoned in that nightmare! They make the nurses stay shift after shift during snowstorms when relief can't make it in, and have the nerve to not allow staff to sleep in the hospital beds. That cracked us up -- after all, it was *we* who scrubbed down the rooms and remade the beds after discharging patients.

Tried not to post to this thread, stirs up zee old blood pressure ... ;^)

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 05, 1999.

Ashton & Leska

You mase the right decision. I have seen what you saw.

What confuses me about the origional post is that here in the NoethWest, there is an organization that is working with all of the hospitals to assist them and track their Y2K remediation.

The only hospital I can think he may be referring to is one where I had surgery just over a year ago and in the process of leaving I went to the Bio-med dept. and asked what they were doing about the Y2K problem, and the head bio-med guy said they didn't have any Y2K problems.

4 months ago I went to the E.R. with a grease burn (a precaution when on coumadin) and as usual I asked about the Y2K effort. I had to laugh at the answers, they were worried! The IT dept. was desperatly trying to get the Y2K status of their equipment. I have been on the RX2000 mail-list for over a year and have the url's to the manufacturers equipment compliance lists. Unfortunatly I became too busy to offer these to them.

(mental note: go talk to them this week)

Fortunatly this is a small hospital and will not be allowed to operate if they are not ready. Oddly I have an appointment with a vascular surgen there on 9/9/99.

I have done research on the infusiion pumps, especially the secure ones, they dispence meds at what looks to us on a time basis. The internal workings do not look at time as we do, they set up to dispence at X numbers of time within a "timeframe" and the "timer resets to do the same all over again. They do have a record keeping ability which is not connected to the workings of the pump which "time stamps" the activity for the record.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), September 06, 1999.

Cherri, yes Matt peaked our curiosity but we refrained from asking *which* hospital ;^)

We've been to meetings where hospital organizations seem very up & up on their efforts and are doing pretty well. BUT they are still blase and don't seem to connect with what those tool glitzes will mean to already-exhausted overburdened nursing staff. We feel hospitals are toast because with everything up and running purrrfectly, still outrageous mistakes are made every shift, and there's constant CYA, exhaustion, frenzied harried cut corners.

There's no room for complications, going manual, erroneous data, let alone the power going out and the back-up gennies turning fickle.

On 9/9/99 there probably won't be any problems, plus there will be extra staff at utilities just in case, and for their staged testing.

Infusion pumps can be set to drip manually, but again, it takes more time and much more babysitting. Already the RNs can't get to the machines fast enough when they start beeping. Can't imagine having to mentally track & babysit those things on "manual." They have to be constantly checked if they're not reporting their status digitally. Not enough personnel!

A hospital's biggest expense is employment costs. They're not too keen on adding staff. Going manual would bury their bottom line in bad blood red.

Certainly some hospitals will do better than other ones. The ones that tank will close within the first week, if insurance even allows them the first week!

Cherri, best of all circumstances for any upcoming procedures, and don't fall or get a kitchen cut! Good luck helping with info when you go back to talk to them.

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

Matt,

After you sort through all the above, let us know what you still need.

Kudos... on at least "being prepared" to stand up and be counted at work. Even if you choose a different group awareness strategy, shortly before your meeting.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 06, 1999.

Matt,

The reason I have a difficult time believing what you wrote is that all of the hospitals in the NorthWest have been monitored by the "Regional Hospital Board" and have been for the last few years when it comes to Y2K. I doubt that you would know something that they are unaware of. If it were a small hospital it might be different, but a "major" one..., Unless you can at least name the Town, I think you may just not be informed.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), September 08, 1999.

Matt,

Talk to Barb Graff, head of the Emergency Ops Center for Bellevue. 425-452-6813. They know that looking out for staff and family is key to emergency response. They figure if they have a big enough emergency that staff is worried about their families, then there will be plenty for family members to do at the emergency ops center. Run errands, do meals, etc.

Besides, Barb is fun to talk with.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), September 08, 1999.

Matt,

Regarding your "Y2K OK" stickers on medical equipment - I was in my doctor's office the other day and noticed someone had placed stickers on the scales and the instruments used to look into ears. I didn't see one on the computer.

-- Shannon (Teacherof3@aol.com), September 08, 1999.

Quote from IT Head at our hospital "Y2K is mostly hype"

Quote from friend who is Clinical Nursing Instructor for emerg at our hospital "So IT came and asked me if my computer is compliant. I said I had no idea, wasn't it their job to check? When I got back to my office, I found a compliant sticker on my computer, but I can't see how they checked it 'cause you can only operate it if you know the password and I'm the only one who does. My secretary said they were only in the office for a couple of minutes - do you think they just put a sticker on it with out checking it?"

Our hospital's contingency plan - no holidays for anyone from Dec 15 to Jan 8, and expect a 15% increase in hospital usage. Sigh.

-- T the C (tricia_canuck@hotmail.com), September 09, 1999.

Matt, take a look at contingencyplanning.com (I think that's the site). Many health organizations are members of that and other forums providing very helpful info. If you're coming here for info, you lose. They don't have accurate info here; just a rehash of legends. Do yourself a favor and get onto some other forum.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), September 09, 1999.