Last week the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) experienced what was characterized as a “botched software update”. The results of this apparent planned “software update” brought the NYSE to a screeching halt. The symptoms reported were “unusual computer operating system behaviors”. Subsequently the NYSE was forced to shut down all trading at approximately 11:30 AM and once “new software updates” could be loaded into the computer operating systems and tested, electronic trading was then able to be brought back on-line at approximately 3:00PM that afternoon.
As HTM service professionals does this “software update” debacle, mishap or some other vernacular wording you may desire to use sound familiar? Have you ever chased a reported service event that had elusive symptoms or perhaps “unusual operating system behaviors” and to have found it linked to a “software update” that was installed? Chasing your “tail like a dog” and throughout that process either not being informed a “software update” had been applied or being told by the manufacturer “that software update cannot be the problem” – only to find out it was the cause! Now that can raise your blood pressure to a rolling boil.
The healthcare environment of today has an operating system on just about every modern age medical device in existence. Software “updates” and “patches” are applied constantly – known and many times un-knowing to the HTM service professional when called upon to provide services when events occur. You may ask yourself, how does an HTM service professional prepare themselves to be always at the ready and knowledgeable of these lurking “ghosts” that can derail the logical troubleshooting process? Good question and the answer is to always be suspect when strange and elusive service problems present themselves – check the medical device’s service and software update history. You just might save yourself a lot of “tail chasing”!