Y2K has long term benefits for hospital and health
HOSPITAL and health services will reap longer term benefits
from their efforts
to become Y2K compliant, says Ministry
of Health Y2K project manager Steve
Brazier.
"While it
has taken much work on the part of hospital and health
services, every
service now has a updated effective
business plan for managing emergencies," Mr
Brazier
said.
"It has been a good test of project management
skills, and has resulted in
services carrying out
comprehensive audits and reviews of their processes."
Mr
Brazier said some had identified where they could optimise
resource use
during the "top to bottom and bottom to top
review".
"For example, some found they were lighting an
empty area or using electricity
unnecessarily. Positive
change was in some cases made immediately as a result
of
the work, done primarily to help them prepare for
Y2K.
"The audit of medical equipment to ensure it was Y2K
compliant meant a total
stocktake and ensures more than
ever that the services now know their machines
inside-out
after extensive testing.
"And the cost has not been as
large as predicted. On average only about 4 per
cent of
medical equipment failed Y2K tests and needed to be fixed or
replaced.
None of the equipment which failed would have
affected patient safety."
Mr Brazier said services had
continued their practice of cooperating to share
their
experiences and making positive suggestions to help others.
Already
established national and international support
networks were strengthened as a
result, he said.
"More
than ever, the public can now be confident of their health
services
knowledge of processes and equipment and that
they will handle an emergency
competently," he
said.
ENDS