Link as previously promised in another post.

10,000 clinics, baby!

-- PJC (paulchri@msn.com), October 16, 1999

Answers

The strategy is known as "Fix on Failure," or FOF. And if FOF takes more than, say, two or three hours, then it's accompanied by manual workarounds and contingency plans.

It might be interesting to ask you fellow workers whether they could manage to run things manually for a week or two, if they absolutely HAD to. The answer might turn out to be something like, "Yeah, we could continue to treat patients, but we wouldn't be able to bill them, we wouldn't be able to file the reports that we're required to file, and we couldn't pay any bills..." So then the question becomes: how long can they operate in that mode? A month? Two months? A year?

I suspect that if you ask such questions, you'll get a blank look ...

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), October 16, 1999.

Need some pollycomment.....

-- PJC (paulchri@msn.com), October 16, 1999.

Sorry, this ain't a polly comment, but it's a question along these lines.

I do contract work for an OB/GYN clinic here, and have been for nearly 2 years. ((Not computer stuff)) Since I knew a couple of the gals that work there, I started asking Y2K questions of them clear back then. Ever since, I have talked to lots of the people who work there, from the receptionists right up to a couple of the doctors. The office manager told me about a year ago that their system had been checked and they were told everything was fine. I knew better, but oh well.

To make a long story short, I found this past week that their plan now is to replace some of their workstations (the old ones are 386's) which are tied into an IBM Risc box. The rest will be cob-jobbed and cross yer fingers. They haven't started yet. I know absolutely nothing about networks. This outfit contracts it's Medicare claims out to someone in Atlanta for processing. Probably does the same for other insurance company claims. Their system appears to mostly be for keeping database info on patients, accounting, and scheduling. Their old system was running AIX v3.0 and they also have a couple stand- alones running DOS 5.0 for doing stuff like transcription, etc.

That's about all I can tell ya, and I'm sure that's not enough, but with the time remaining, is there any hope for them to stay afloat?

-- Don Wegner (donfmwyo@earthlink.net), October 16, 1999.

I am fascinated every time I see things like this, that is professional services running things like AIX or 386 machines or Win 3.1 with DOS based programs running in ANSI graphics. One of my relatives has a 8086 running Dos 3.1 with all his programs running on a CGA monitor. He claims he simply doesnt have the time to change systems and learn 10 new programs plus a new operating system. I told him "You wont have any time AT ALL after 1/1/2000".

EVERY SINGLE DAY I talk to someone new who is doing this, either at their place of work or in their home-office. Its practicly November, when the hell are they going to upgrade?.

-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), October 16, 1999.

FOF = FUBAR

-- weary (too@many.idiots), October 17, 1999.