Good eating p45 «= Home reno p66 New owners rename Special two-page Lynn Valley rcstaurant Classifieds fearure MARCH 24, 1939 cosy, Bright Lights eve 12 ome Business eee 15 Tre Classifieds eee 58 =< Crossword ove §3 ; Grenby ove 16 ; Knight ooo] ‘ Sports ooo 56 Third annual best of the North Shore | Wright 2006 ae , ; 25 be aad "eet Stuie Free Fress 13 Pteste: Petes Sem " ; : Reader § choice Wh vunsaaie Aone ot vaca BE SW ona ; o i " Caragan Pubseateons Mar Sues P10uc Ageereat fey DET : = mie . ; , awards p25 feet 23 ? A 68 Pages The Voice of North and West Vanceuyer since 1969 FREE sis nS Health region spends on systems Michael Becker : News Editor michacl@nsnews.com THE North Shore Health Region is spending millions to fix the Y2K computer problem. The health-care sector is vulnerable to a programming glitch that may cause some date-driven hardware and software to malfunction when the year 2006 arrives. Alex Salazar, year 2000 project manager for Lions Gate Hospital, pegs the price to ensure everything works beyond Dec. 31 at approximmtely $2.5 million. Said Salazar, who was brought to the hospital in November, “The main challenge is to discover every piece of equipment we have and assure that it is compliant or is in the process of becoming compliant.” Salazar said a health region task force representing plant services, labo- ratory, medical imaging, medical staf¥, information services, finance and bio-medical engineering services was initiated in February 1998 to deal with the issue. Approximately 1 800 pieces of equipment (excluding intor- mation systems) have been identified. So far about 1,000 items have been examined in areas such 2s building systems, pharmacy systems, biomedical equipment and clinical systems. “We have discovered only 27 items are non-compliant per se. These are pieces of equipment which may stop functioning because of the year 2000,” said Salazar. Far example, one piece of cquipmeni identificd as problematic is a body scanner used in the ultrasound area of the hospital. Said Salazar, “We are looking at probably in the neighbourhood of $80,000 (to replace it}.” Other equipment identitied as prone to failure will either be replaced, upgraded of addressed with contingericy plans, Salazar is optimistic that the health region will be ready wo meet the Y2K challenge. Meanwhile, by the end of this month, the hospital’s decade-old patient information management system will be shut down and sold for scrap. The hospital has invested about $7.5 million in a new system. Said Brent Eriksson, regional director of information services for the North Shore Health Region, “We have just basically completed an effort that took us 4% years to replace a mainframe environment that was not Y2K compliant. Year 2000 was a big piece of us taking that on; in addition it was a major functional enhancement to our ability to deliver services.” Enksson estimares that 2 room full of IBM maintrames, wipe back-up ems and neavorked terminals would have cost $1.5 million to purchase . in its prime, “Scrap value for it now is probably fess than $10,000," he NEWS photo Mike Waketieid said. The health region is defining a Y2K expenditure budget that will be S h OW b 0 a t submitted to the Ministry of Health for submission to the treasury board. THE speedy PacifiCat heads out smoothly towards the Lions Gate Bridge on Monday for sea trials See Funding page 3 in Georgia Strait. The vessel reached 37.8 knots (69 km-h). See story on page 3. A Star 6 ris UNWIN STORE ON THE NORTH SHORE 1480 Marine Drive, North“Vancouver MENTION THIS AD AND RECEIVE 980-891 2 15% OFF your next purchase Check out our website jrect.com Laetinespstaie nen