Y2K Audit. A challenge for clinical engineers in Mexico

Summary form only received as follows: The Health Care System in Mexico includes the hospitals for the population that has no social security, which are 400, plus many primary clinics. In October 18th, a project to evaluate the Y2K process in those hospitals began. The contractor proposed 10 weeks using 16 biomedical engineers to get the information and render recommendations. The inventories and information analysis for the 400 hospitals required 35 biomedical engineers during 3 weeks in November 1999. They had to visit 32 different states, interview the Y2K project manager and do a specialized inventory in 183 hospitals. The rest of the hospitals, with less number of equipment, sent their inventories by fax or mail. The analysis led to a total of 3,670 medical equipment. The process of analyzing each equipment status regarding Y2K was done during December. Four full time engineers and 22 clinical engineers, who helped after 5 p.m. (weekends and weeknights), finally processed all the information. Consults with distributors or the web were done. The final database was of 1226 different types of equipment, which were classified into 4 priorities and sent to every state with the information of each of their hospitals, with recommended actions to take either before, in the transition or during year 2000. After this challenge, the authors know that clinical engineers in Mexico can work together for a goal and they hope for another opportunity. The project described in this abstract was supported by a grant from the Health Ministry