Hospitals Have Low-tech Y2K Backup

Updated 3:29 AM ET December 29, 1999

By ROBERT WELLER, Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) - Hospitals across the nation have spent $8 billion to make sure their patients don't suffer on New Year's Eve. But for some, it could all come down to a $5 bell or whistle.

Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colo. recently purchased 153 low-tech bells, at $5.44 apiece, for patients to ring that night - just in case the Y2K bug fouls up hospital computers.

"It's a low cost way for patients to get nurses into their rooms if the call system fails," Jennifer Weil, a Memorial spokeswoman, said Tuesday.

Penrose Hospital, also in Colorado Springs, didn't have to buy bells - it already had 200 in supply.

At New England Baptist Hospital in Boston, the hospital will hand out penlight flashlights to patients. A staff member will be with each patient at midnight, too, said spokeswoman Janice Sullivan.

Like many hospitals, a special Y2K-compliant command center will be set up to make sure all is well, Ms. Sullivan added.

At Swedish Hospital in suburban Denver, some, but not all, patients will get a bell or whistle.

"You wouldn't want to have a whole floor of bells and whistles," said hospital spokeswoman Sara Spaulding. "We have identified the patients who are the highest risk if the power goes out, and those folks will be given a choice of a bell or a whistle."

Rick Wade, spokesman for the American Hospital Association, said hospitals have spent $8 billion to get ready for Y2K, from the infrastructure to the bedside.

He said he had not heard of the bell and whistle buys, but could understand how the noisemakers might be reassuring.

Hospitals have a larger-than-normal percentage of elderly patients during the holidays, since many younger patients go home and little elective surgery is scheduled.

Wade said no matter what happens New Year's Eve, it won't be new for hospitals.

"They deal with disasters all the time," he said. "They are all prepared for power failures, like in North Carolina during the hurricane."

Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville, N.C., emptied its swimming pool to flush toilets during Hurricane Floyd. And nurses from North Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, N.C., rescued stranded patients with a Humvee during Hurricane Bonnie.

"We been through six hurricanes in the last four years and in many ways we are treating this like another one," said Scott Whisnant, spokesman for New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, N.C.

Ms. Spaulding said Swedish staffers have been retrained to do their work without computers. "They know how to use hand fetal monitors, and have workarounds for other equipment, too," she said.

Extra staffers will be working and on call. Some staffers are on a "reverse call down" in case phones fail. "They call us at midnight," she said, "and if they can't go through, they come right to work."

At Allegheny Hospital in Pittsburgh, the entire emergency staff has been ordered to report for duty on Friday unless they receive a call telling them to stay home.

Dr. Fred Harchelroad, a physician at the hospital's emergency room, said the decision was made so that "if communication became a problem, we wouldn't be left without doctors and personnel."

"The hospital is in disaster mode," said Harchelroad, who anticipates that millennium parties may produce hordes of drunken, injured and testy revelers. "We're in the business of preparing for the worst, not the best."

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), December 29, 1999