Year 2000 contingency planning

The clock is ticking. The year 2000 is just a few short months away, and hospitals have very little time to finish their Y2K preparations. With this in mind, we present this article--derived in part from ECRI's Special Report, Five Minutes to Midnight: Practical Y2K Contingency Plans for Healthcare Facilities--to help hospitals develop, refine, and implement sound, practicable contingency plans given the existing time constraints. Unlike the Special Report, which addresses all aspects of developing and implementing facilitywide contingency plans, this article focuses on departmental contingency planning needs related specifically to medical devices and systems. Department managers and others responsible for parts of the contingency planning process can use this article as a resource when reviewing and refining aspects of their plans, as well as when educating staff about the contingency planning process and about what will be expected of them in the coming months. In addition, although planning efforts should by now be well under way, departments that are still in the preliminary stages of developing a plan will find useful information to help them prepare for the year 2000.