Problem may present an HIM opportunity
Be proactive in finding solutions
The so-called "year 2000 crisis"can present massive headaches for health information management, but it also offers opportunities, says Cheryl Berthelsen, PhD, RRA.
Because the data stored in your information systems are the key that will open your hospital to the future of health care, the impending technological problems presents an opportunity to push your hospital administration for a new system, says Berthelsen, associate professor of HIM at the University of Mississippi in Jackson.
If your administration balks, point out that the technological demands in the HIM field will change dramatically over the next few years, especially in two critical areas:
• Health care reform legislation approved by Congress last year requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop technological standards that will apply to all providers and payers.
• The Health Care Financing Administration plans to begin implementing its Medicare Transaction System in mid-1998, which will require more technological changes.
Many hospital information systems already are behind the times, says Berthelsen. "A lot of departments are limping along with relics, and this would be a really good time for HIM departments to go full speed ahead and get state-of-the-art software. I wouldn’t recommend trying to convert really old software. A lot of those don’t even store all the data you need, such as your diagnoses and procedure indexes used in coding."
Because the role of health information managers is vital to solving the millennium problem, this also is a good opportunity for you to become more acquainted with your information systems, she adds.
"This is an opportunity for HIMs to be proactive," Berthelsen says. "Don’t just throw up your hands and scream, Come help me, MIS.’ At least poke around with what you know and discover as much as you can on your own before you look for help."
Specifically, she says you need to look at four layers of your data systems that could be affected:
• hardware;
• operating systems;
• codes and programs;
• databases.
For your smaller systems, especially those that are PC-based, you may be able to take a do-it-yourself approach, she adds. For instance, if you have DOS-based system, it is fairly simple to change the date and time. Get into that system, change the date to Dec. 31, 1999, 11:50 p.m., then wait to see what happens in 10 minutes.
Be prepared for problems in the form of negative numbers. If the system doesn’t recognize the year 2000, you may notice negative numbers, such as length of stay calculations. For instance, the system might recognize that a patient was admitted on Dec. 29, 1999, but might read a discharge date of Jan. 2, 2000, as if the patient were discharged Jan. 2, 1900. The negative numbers are a sure indication you have a problem.
Or, your system may not function at all. "One of the problems you have with looking for negative numbers is that the people who designed the systems never envisioned that you’d have a need for a negative number, so they didn’t develop a trap for it," says Berthelsen. "So if your system produces a negative number, your system may crash rather than printing it out."
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