Y2K success: Saved by careful planning!

By Sharon Newton, MS, RN, CDMS

Assistant Director of Programs

Outreach Health Services

Forney, TX

For months, all we heard about Y2K was: "Be ready! Plan! Convert your systems! Upgrade! Put those patches on your networks!"

That’s exactly what happened at Outreach Health Services, one of the largest home health agencies in Texas. A Y2K committee planned and implemented interventions, and a "war room" was manned bright and early on Jan. 1, 2000, at each of the two field support offices.

Everyone at their posts

Richard Woessner, director of information systems at Outreach, saw to it that all of the computers were converted, upgraded, and patched. New computers were purchased to replace those beyond hope. A person in each office — usually the administrator or lead nurse — was designated to report to his or her office at a specific time. This point person checked that the electricity was on, water flowed, telephones worked, and computers booted up and responded to commands. S/he then notified the war room. Woessner manned the Field Support Office that housed the network. Four managers, including a nurse, also manned the war room. The plan was that the management personnel would answer the telephones and coordinate any follow-up activities needed as a result of the Y2K bug — a sort of triage for any millennium maladies.

Well, as we now know, the Y2K bug didn’t bite. As one TV network anchorman asked, "Was it because nothing would have happened anyway, or was it because of the careful planning taken by reasonable people?" If a conclusion can be drawn by one agency’s experience, the answer is careful planning. And isn’t that what we in home health and private duty nursing are expert at? Whether it’s patient/client care, scheduling, or the Y2K bug, preparedness wins out!

• Sharon Newton, MS, RN,CDMS, Assistant Director of Programs, Outreach Health Services, P.O. Box 1859, Forney, TX 75126-1859. Tele-phone: (972) 564-1859. Fax: (972) 564-4696.