Contingency plans smooth transition to the New Year
Contingency plans smooth transition to the New Year
Check out all your potential points of failure
The contingency planning you do today will make your practice run much smoother when the year 2000 rolls around, the experts say.
"A contingency plan is a key issue, because there are a lot of potential points of failure that should be addressed," says Joel Ackerman, chief executive officer of RX2000 in Minneapolis, a nonprofit clearinghouse on the millennium bug for health care providers.
Leon A. Kappelman, PhD, a University of North Texas in Denton professor and co-chairman of the Society of Information Management Year 2000 Working Group, suggests a communitywide contingency plan to make sure all patients are not in danger.
"There are bound to be glitches in the system, no matter how much checking everyone does. Nobody is going to have the time to fix everything. We should focus on where we can do the most good in terms of taking care of the community," he says.
It’s not enough to make sure your computers, biomedical equipment, communications systems, and other technology are Y2K-compliant. To be prepared, physicians must anticipate what can go wrong with all their outside vendors, Ackerman and other experts say.
"Contingency planning is important even if you think you are going to be ready," says Jack Gribben, chair of the President’s Council on Year 2000 Conversion in Washington, DC.
Gribben suggests making a list of all the outside organizations on which you depend and identifying what you can do if each of their systems fail. This includes suppliers, utilities, communication equipment, payers, and contractors.
Think it through
For example, think through what you will do if certain kinds of medication or equipment can’t be delivered because of a disruption in the transportation or manufacturing process.
Here are other tips for contingency planning:
• Decide how long you will wait after an equipment or system failure before your contingency plan goes into effect.
• Consider what you will do if you have an influx of patients because other practices or hospitals are experiencing difficulties, suggests the American Medical Association.
• Prepare now for a rash of worried telephone calls from patients and their families who are concerned about what may happen in the year 2000. The RX2000 Web site is already getting e-mail messages from patients who are concerned about their insulin supply or pacemakers, Ackerman says.
• Make paper copies of your patients’ files ahead of time, particularly the following:
— those who have appointments in the early part of the year;
— those scheduled for hospital admission;
— those who are likely to need hospitalization;
— those who have chronic illnesses and are likely to seek treatment.
• On Jan. 1, 2000, or before your office opens for business on Monday, Jan. 3, be prepared to check all of your equipment to make sure it is operating correctly, advises Gayle Finch, director of the office of information technology analysis and investment for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC.
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