Ensuring your equipment is Y2K-compliant
Ensuring your equipment is Y2K-compliant
Here are seven key steps you should take to ensure your practice’s equipment is Y2K-compliant:
1. Check your serial numbers against the Food and Drug Administration database to find out if your equipment is compliant or needs a maintenance upgrade between now and the end of the year, advises Jaren Doherty, Y2K program manager at the National Insti tutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. The FDA database is located on the FDA Web site. Address: www.fda.gov/cdrh/yr2000/year2000.html.
Check the equipment by serial number and not by model number. Equipment manufacturers buy microchips from a variety of sources. That means identical equipment could have different microchips.
2. To be sure your practice is not at risk for problems caused by equipment malfunctions, take the extra step of contacting each vendor to get their assurances that their equipment complies, says Jim Kalyvas, JD, a partner in Foley & Lardner law firm in Los Angeles and a speaker at the American Medical Association’s Year 2000 Advanced Regional Seminars, held earlier this year.
Ask for written certification of equipment compliance. Keep a detailed log of telephone inquiries.
3. Even if your equipment isn’t date-sensitive, check it anyway. Some manufacturers use recycled chips, which means your equipment could have a dormant date that could malfunction.
4. Be prepared to replace some of your equipment if the manufacturer declares it’s obsolete and will no longer support it.
5. Remember that the closer it gets to Jan. 1, the more difficult it is going to be to get new equipment because manufacturers are going to be backlogged with orders.
6. Don’t test your biomedical equipment on your own before checking with your attorney to make sure you are not taking on the manufacturer’s liability in case a piece of equipment fails, warns Gayle Finch, director of the office of information technology analysis and investment for the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC.
"Typically, manufacturers’ testing protocols are considered to be proprietary information. Most of them are still covered by a nondisclosure agreement, and even if you want to test, you may not be able to do it," Finch says.
7. Make sure any new equipment you purchase includes a written guarantee that it is year 2000-compliant, Finch adds.
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