April 19, 1999
Cover

HOSPITALS ARE RUNNING SHORT ON TIME

Officials say patients will not be at risk if some devices fail

BY WARREN CARAGATA

In a basement lab of a large Toronto hospital, a monitor bears a red sticker proclaiming that it is not Y2K ready. As part of a test, it is hooked up to a piece of equipment mimicking a patient's heart rate. The readout is steady: 80 beats a minute. A clinical engineer then moves the time and date ahead to 23:59:30, Dec. 31, 1999. Thirty-one seconds later, the machine erroneously displays the new date: "Jan. 3, ++." Other attempts reveal the monitor is not consistent in its failures, sometimes it reads Jan. 1, 1980. But the line showing the heartbeat never wavers -- it stays at 80 beats a minute. "We haven't found anything that has failed in a life-threatening way," says Dr. Michael Guerriere, executive vice-president of the University Health Network (formerly Toronto Hospital) and the person responsible for Y2K efforts.

Among essential services in Canada, the biggest question is whether hospitals will be Y2K-ready by year's end. Officials maintain that none of the potential problems will be serious enough to threaten the health of patients, but many hospitals, particularly small ones, are far behind. On top of years of budget cuts, Y2K has been one more headache for hospital administrators. But "it's not a question of money any more," says Al Aubry, general manager of year 2000 services for IBM Canada Ltd. "It's a question of time."

A survey of Ontario hospitals last October showed the majority had not yet started to make repairs. The latest results from a January sampling of all Ontario health organizations indicated that 28 per cent still had much work to do just to identify systems to fix. A similar survey has been done in British Columbia, but the government refuses to make the results public. All hospitals say they will be able to take care of patients in 2000, even if some machines fail. But Maclean's interviews with hospital administrators across the country show varying degrees of readiness:

* Vancouver Hospital will not finish its Y2K work until the end of September, with more than half the task now completed. "We still have a lot of work to do," says Karen Gill, one of two Y2K co-ordinators.

* Toronto's University Health Network started work in 1993 and has completed repairs of all major systems. All Y2K tests will be wrapped up by the end of June.

* The seven hospitals in northwestern Alberta that comprise the Mistahia Health Region, based in Grande Prairie, aim to have all faulty medical devices fixed or replaced by June 1. One system that would have failed without a $158 software fix was an intravenous pump used by ambulance staff to provide patients with up to three IV drips at a time.

* At the 138-bed Valley Regional Hospital in Kentville, N.S., systems that are key to patient health will be ready, says general manager Gary Slauenwhite. Y2K efforts started at Valley Regional a year ago, but he acknowledges that several other provincial hospitals are further behind. Testing of medical devices in five of the province's eight health regions is finished and more than 50 per cent have been fixed, says Jeremy Dann, the Y2K co-ordinator for the provincial association of health organizations. Only 442 of the 7,300 devices on the inventory needed to be repaired or replaced and none has failed in a way that would harm a patient. "My confidence has grown," Dann says. "I am looking forward to New Year's."

* All medical devices in areas of Manitoba outside Winnipeg will be repaired by June 30, but only 110 of 10,000 were a problem, says Gerald Zoner, the director of property management services with the Brandon Regional Health Authority, which is in charge of the effort.

* In eastern Ontario, the small Arnprior and District Memorial Hospital is still determining what needs to be fixed. Leslie Irvine, the assistant executive director for human resources, says there is no separate technical staff. To find devices that might need Y2K repairs, employees have simply been checking everything "that plugged into the wall," including power bars and calculators.

* Corner Brook's Western Health Care Corp., which runs nine institutions in western Newfoundland, says its medical devices are old and problem-free. The corporation is largely relying on suppliers to provide fixes.

* St. Joseph's General Hospital in Elliot Lake, Ont., has a 24-hour emergency ward. The hospital is repairing or replacing medical devices that might have problems, including a $150,000 ultrasound unit, says Micheal Hukezalie, the assistant executive director responsible for Y2K issues. Testing will be finished by September. The hospital is developing a plan to deal with unexpected failures, and may rent a dairy tanker to use as an alternate water supply. "We're in pretty good shape," Hukezalie says.

As the new year approaches, Canadians will be hoping that the confidence expressed by Hukezalie and his colleagues across the country has not been misplaced.