Hospital Brought Down by Networking Glitch 575
hey! writes "The Boston Globe reports that Beth Israel Deaconess hospital suffered a major network outage due to a problem with spanning tree protocol. Staff had to scramble to find old paper forms that hadn't been used in six years so they could transfer vital patient records and prescriptions. Senior executives were reduced to errand runners as the hospital struggled with moving information around the campus. People who have never visited Boston's Medical Area might not appreciate the magnitude of this disaster: these teaching hospitals are huge, with campuses and staff comparable to a small college, and many, many computers. The outage lasted for days, despite Cisco engineers from around the region rushing to the hospital's aid. Although the article is short on details, the long term solution proposed apparently is to build a complete parallel network. Slashdot network engineers (armchair and professional): do you think the answer to having a massive and unreliable network is to build a second identical network?"
This is what you call... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Well! Woopsy! (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, I believe we should rush to conclusions and blame it on foreign terrorists since there is nothing suggesting terrorism, and that just proves that they're extremely sneaky.
You may now begin to panic in an orderly fashion, thank you.
OMG! (Score:2, Funny)
Did that mean the doctors couldn't play Quake for four days!?
Re:friggin windoze users (Score:1, Funny)
Oh, that's so cute. Sounds like true love. How long have you and Brian been together? Where did you meet?
I have the solution... (Score:4, Funny)
Well, maybe not. But I still need a job... =)
Yes, if I'm selling the network ;) (Score:2, Funny)
This is obvious.
In truth the network problem was not a physical one so then solution should not be a physical one.
Re:I don't buy it (Score:2, Funny)
If "offtopic" results in a loss of moderation rights I'd hate to see what the consequences would have been for calling her a troll
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Re:Hospital Systems (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah, that ability to compute using both metric and imperial units in parallel really comes in useful ;-)
Re:friggin windoze users (Score:5, Funny)
"Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a CCIE!"
Re:Yes, if I'm selling the network ;) (Score:2, Funny)
I can top that! (Score:5, Funny)
The NEC (National Electrical Code) was the first casualty of his attitude. But not the last!
I discovered that he carried a heavy-duty plug in his pocket with the two hot leads wired directly together. He called it his "pigtail".
When Joe needed to find what circuit breaker controlled an outlet, he jammed in the pigtail (with an audible *snap* of electric arc) and then calmly walked down to the nearest breaker box to see what had tripped.
You could tell he was working in a building because you'd see scientists running down the hallways tearing their hair and screaming "My research!!! My research!! Ten years of research ruined!!" as the voltage spikes destroyed their equipment...
And on an unrelated note... (Score:3, Funny)
Former MIS Director,
Beth Israel Deaconess hospital
Boston, MA 02215
Re:Contribution to causality responsibility (Score:1, Funny)
These guys got off easy! (Score:3, Funny)
Ok, so seriously, I'd be embarassed if I screwed up a spanning tree algorithm on a test. If it took Cisco engineers 6 days to fix it, it musta been something really quirky, most likely the software not configuring something right. I can't imagine an application problem that would hose a network past a power toggle.
Sure, and while we're at it!! (Score:3, Funny)
<I>just kiddi'n the uptime of the above mentioned network would be measured in nanoseconds, and then they will have to switch MS paper'n'pen method</I>
Executives working? (Score:3, Funny)
It's always nice to see those people doing useful work for a change.