At 07:15 6/11/96 +0000, Mary Hawking wrote:
>Could anyone help with a few more general questions?
>
>How do Health Authorities and the central register manage to deal with
>patients born before 1900?
>One of our patients died last year aged 104 .. and never appeared in our
>2 year or preschool target lists..
>If dates of birth such as 1898 can be handled, why can't the same
>fix(whatever it is) be applied to 2001?
The limitation is in how many digits are used to record the year. If 4
digits were used from the outset in the design of a computer system then
there should be no problems. Hence the HA etc. can handle patients >100yr
old & that particular package should be able to handle the millenium. (by
computer system I include hardware & software)
My own checklist for reviewing a system for 2000AD is:
Hardware - behaviour of the internal clock.
Data storage - is century information stored? ie. 1996 should not be
truncated to '96, what is the default century if '96 is entered (try this on
Excel [I use version 5.0c] for '26, '96, '16 & '20)?
Data display - if 1996 is stored what is displayed? All screen displays
(IMHO) should show 4 digits for years.
Data manipulation - is the logic capable of handling 2000AD as a leap year etc.
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Andrew Capey [log in to unmask]
Corporate Data Manager
Royal Brompton Hospital Tel: 0171 351 8726
Sydney Street, London SW3 6NP, UK Fax: 0171 351 8743
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