Health Care Issues

What Will Happen When Health Care Meets Y2K?

Add another sector of the economy to all those others scrambling to address the millennium computer glitch: the nation's health-care delivery systems. A Senate committee is looking into how well these systems will perform once January 1, 2000, rolls around, possibly disabling some computers the industry has come to rely upon.

  • The results might include medical records being lost, intravenous feeders malfunctioning, kidney dialysis machines shutting down, backup generators failing -- even time locks on pharmacy doors freezing up.

  • Senate staff researchers have found that 80 percent of hospitals are looking into the problem -- but only 30 percent have formal Y2K plans.

  • Ninety percent of physicians are taking no action in their offices -- where records are stored on computers or linked to other specialists by computer.

  • Twenty percent of the Veterans Administration's computer medical equipment needs to be fixed or replaced.

Experts contend that the nation's 6,000 hospitals, 50,000 nursing homes and 700,000 doctors all need to locate and repair billions of lines of faulty computer code in the next 17 months.

A British government study predicted late last year that there will be 600 to 1,500 Y2K-related deaths throughout the U.K.

Source: M.J. Zuckerman, "Y2K Glitch Could Spark Health Crisis" and "Medical Industry's Y2K Woes in Spotlight," both in USA Today, July 23, 1998.

Home | Support Us | All Issues | Social Security | Debate Central | Contact Us

Dallas Headquarters: 12770 Coit Rd., Suite 800 - Dallas, TX 75251-1339 - 972/386-6272 - Fax 972/386-0924
Washington Office: 601 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 900 South Building, Washington, DC 20004 - 202/220-3082 - Fax 202/220-3096
© 2001 NCPA