I was very surprised at how "in to" Y2K this person was. Once we started sharing Y2K tidbits, he let me know that the hospital in question was not Y2K compliant. None of the equipment in the emergency room had been tested for compliancy, and TPTB expected to "fix on failure" any equipment that might fail, otherwise it would be business as usual.

The hospital did have a diesel generator and 2 days extra supply of fuel. When I heard this, I wondered what happens if they need 4 days supply of fuel?

This particular health care professional will not be working at the hospital from Dec 27 to January 7. They got their leave approved over a year ago for this time frame, so they can "bug out" if need be.

I found all of this interesting, only because I consider myself "very prepared" for disruptions in power, food, water, and transportation, but can't get my relatives to even store 3 days worth of bottled water.

This health care pro is basically ready to abandon the "Titantic" and they have their own lifeboat.

I wonder how many computer techies out there, that may be reading this have also made personal provisions, and are abandoning ship?

-- Marc (Marc@big.sky), December 08, 1999

Answers

This is a toughy for me because I know that the hospital system where I and my wife work is VERY Y2K aware and has made provisions for emergencies in addition to remediation and testing.

They have backup generators which they test monthly on weekends. They are doing what they should be, but I doubt that they would survive a week without power.

I hope not to have to find out, but we will not be bugging out unless it starts to get bad. If it does get bad, we will have a tough time bugging out, but at least we're armed.

-- nothere nothere (notherethere@hotmail.com), December 08, 1999.

I was at the hospital last week and saw a "Y2k Contingency Manual" sitting on a desk. I asked the nurse about it and she assured me that all their systems were checked and double-checked and all okay (the usual blather). She said that if the power and water went out they couldn't accept any patients and would have to close. Apparently they didn't have any generators. As I left I noticed the Contingency Manual had been replaced with a 5-gallon jug of water and three brand new flashlights. hahahahaha

Is this pathetic or what?

LunaC

-- LunaC (LunaC@moon.com), December 08, 1999.

i am the physician representative on the y2k committee in our hospital, all equipment has been inventoried, all venders have been queried, all remediation was finished after installing the new cardiac monitors 2 months ago. all systems have been tested on emergency power times 4, all contingency plans have been in place and tested times 2.

we have a month of diesel if we just run the genset, two weeks if we also have to fire the boilers for heat. a tank truck firm will supply us with a tanker of water and pump if the water is out of service and the fire dept will handle sewage if this backs up.

we have liasoned with the nat. guard, fema, state and local police, and emergency and disaster planning for the past 6 months, the tank truck firm will supply us with an additional 10,000 gals of diesel if we need it, it is one block from the hospital. our usual fuel supplier will park a full tanker on our lot the last week of dec. the owner was on the hospital board of directors and will go the distance for us. exta food and bottled water and 3 months of supplies are already on hand. if we use all the diesel available the nat. guard will send us a tanker.

we will be open for business!!!!!!!!!! and that is the name of that tune.

doc

-- doc (doc@oncall.com), December 08, 1999.

If only your hospital were in MY town.... It just goes to show you what SHOULD have been done in all our communities.

-- Jill D. (jdance@mindspring.com), December 08, 1999.

Doc Vendor Y2K compliance statements on lab and medical products (or any high technology embeds)are about as worthless as Korsky's "lets all be good Boys Scouts" mantra.

-- Richard Shockwave (vision441@aol.com), December 08, 1999.

Local hospital thought they were all set for y2k. Come to discover not long ago that the dictation system for the Doctors was not going to make it into the new year. Guess what some hapless techie will be doing CHRISTMAS WEEK? installing the new system of course, hoping and praying that the darn thing works and works well. Cutting it a bit short, aren't you Bunky?

Charlie

-- Charlie (cstewart@ime.net), December 08, 1999.

no one can do anything about imbedded chips,all of our devices that have a date have been advanced to beyond 1/1/2000. question- how does an imbedded chip know what date it is, how does keep the date function when you disconnect the power from it, the units we are talking about dont have batteries they are connected and disconnected several times a day, how would they know what time of day or what year it is? i dont think we will have a problem from these devices, as far as suppliers and manufacturers compliance statements i can do nothing else but rely on them as i have no way to independatly verify these devices. manual procedures will replace the electronic devices if need be, medical personel are trained to use the computer god gave them first,it is 1000% y2k compliant. i dont think the health care facility in my community will shut down computer chips or not.

doc

-- doc (doc@oncall.com), December 09, 1999.