Y2K: Prepare for the worst, expect the best
Both providers and patients will benefit
Unless you have a more than sufficient number of staff — or a less than sufficient number of clients — you won’t be able to assign a staff member to sit with every patient on New Year’s Eve. Few home care clients are so technology-dependent that a power failure could create a life-threatening crisis; however, home care agencies should do everything possible to forestall year 2000 (Y2K) difficulties and allay clients’ fears of a worst case scenario.
Sheila Robida, manager for the Connecticut Hospital Association’s (CHA) Y2K project, says the two most important things home care providers can do are:
• Have a contingency plan in place in case problems do arise.
• Ascertain the Y2K-compliant status of computerized medical equipment use in their patients’ homes.
"Home care providers should work with clients to create a contingency plan in place so that if the power does go out or the phones go dead, care can continue with as little interruption as possible," says Robida. "If the worst happens. having a plan in place means there’s a logical next step to take."
All agency management and staff, clients, and their families should fully understand what that plan is, so that nobody panics and everyone knows what to do. "The biggest issue is no surprises. You want to make sure that everyone understands what everyone else is doing so that if there is a problem, it is handled correctly and smoothly," Robida says. She also stresses that every home care agency should assess the needs of its client base and communicate its findings to hospitals and other community institutions that might be called upon should clients require institutional care. Hospitals need to know what patients might need admission, and transport should be arranged for in advance.
Are your clients’ medical devices Y2K-ready?
"Most people who are on home medical equipment rent the equipment," Robida says. "But if they have purchased it, they should query the manufacturer on Y2K-compliant status and find out if they need to have any upgrades to the equipment." Medical care devices with computer chips won’t necessarily quit working on Jan. 1, 2000, because their functions aren’t tied to time and date the way that airline reservations and bank accounts are. Robida says many medical devices manufacturers have told the FDA that most of their devices will be unaffected by Y2K problems; those devices that might malfunction should have had possible Y2K problems before the end of the year.
However, Robida points out that anything with a computer chip, from a magnetic resonance imaging system to a patient monitor, has a potential for failure. "It may be a pretty low potential, but the device should be checked out." The American Hospital Association (AHA) suggests that health care providers test biomedical systems and devices themselves. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has an on-line national clearinghouse that lists voluntary responses to the agency’s requests for medical device Y2K compliant status. The FDA clearinghouse can be accessed at www.fda.gov/cdrh/yr2000/year2000.html.
To help health care providers ascertain the Y2K compliant status of their equipment, CHA has formed Security Third Millennium (SIIIM). SCT’s staff has developed a database on Y2K compliant status by querying manufacturers of medical equipment. Owners and managers of private duty agencies with a large number of clients on computer chip-dependent equipment may want to consider subscribing to a service provided by SIIIM to be able to give their clients accurate information on the Y2K status of the devices they are using. The information is offered to health care providers by subscription. They can either subscribe to SIIIM’s service or search its data base for information on their particular devices and equipment, or send in their biomedical device inventory for review. In each case, the care provider receives a report relaying what the manufacturers have stated has been done for Y2K compliance. Care providers other than hospitals may obtain query service on a case-by-case basis, the cost of which depends on the size of their inventories.
"We are able to tell pretty quickly where you stand with Y2K compliance," Robida says. "We need a manufacturer’s name, device model number, and serial number, if available. If the manufacturer is not yet contained in our database, we’ll contact them and get the information."
Subscription costs vary, depending on the institution type and expenses.
Also, check your accounting system
Home care professionals should also double-check the status of their computerized accounting systems, but they probably won’t have any Y2K compliance problems. According to Alan Jackson, computer specialist with Curative Health Services in Hauppauge, NY, most companies that do medical billing re-evaluate their systems every few years due to the rapidity of changes within the information technology industry. "Just through recent computer system purchases, many Y2K issues would have been resolved," Jackson says, "and a self-contained, small office that prints its own bills could probably continue to do so. One product we have found very useful in identifying Y2K problems both at the hardware and shrink-wrap software levels is the program Norton 2000.
On the hardware side, it will identify whether the hardware is certifiable and can even fix some hardware problems." Suggested retail price for Norton 2000 is $49.95.
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content