4 ms·

The world has moved on a bit since everything was done on paper. The new process is not necessarily backwards compatible. Everyone is trained on using a compute

The world has moved on a bit since everything was done on paper. The new process is not necessarily backwards compatible. Everyone is trained on using a computer interface for their work, there's a reliance on the computers to move the data to wherever it needs to be. I reckon even a restaurant with a modern POS system would be problematic to switch to paper, ad-hoc.

INTPenis 6y ago
Sure I can accept that we have a very hard dependence on computer systems. In that case there is work to do because imho a hosptial should keep working during a war or a blackout. This is essential for society readiness.
- unishark 6y ago
  I'm sure they have generators for handling blackouts. Even my local grocery can keep operating in a blackout. Some people can't survive without machines after all. They occasionally get caught by rarer situations like a blackout combined with a flood which takes out the generators.
  - sideshowb 6y ago
    I've more than once been turned away from a supermarket because the POS system is down. My local shop on the other hand would have no issues. Strictly cash only, or a verbal credit agreement if you don't have enough on you. The proprietor refuses to get a card machine, says the risk is too great for a business with such low margins.
leetcrew 6y ago
> I reckon even a restaurant with a modern POS system would be problematic to switch to paper, ad-hoc. it would be slower and a couple more orders might get messed up, but it's not that big of a problem. a lot of restaurant POS systems are just a calculator with a touchscreen that prints two tickets per order (one for the kitchen, and one for the servers) and tells you how much to charge the customer. then the kitchen spikes their copy when they finish the order, and the server spikes theirs after they bring it to the table. on fancier ones, the tickets are just shown on a screen and you "spike" them by pressing the done button. anybody who understands how to do their job in the first place can emulate the digital system on pen-and-paper. in fact, the POS went down more than once when I worked in restaurants, and this is exactly what we did.
wccrawford 6y ago
When I worked at a grocery store 25+ years ago, having the computer systems go down didn't mean we couldn't check people out. But it was hard enough to deal with that we always waited for them to come back up before checking people out again. Recently, after a hurricane, I heard local supermarkets were checking people out manually. It involved looking up prices of everything (by running to the shelf, I think!) and then writing it down and doing actual math. I was amazed that they even tried it. It's so difficult as to be nearly impossible thanks to the way things are done in normal times. And that's just a grocery store. Medical stuff has to be way, way harder.

INTPenis 6y ago

Sure I can accept that we have a very hard dependence on computer systems. In that case there is work to do because imho a hosptial should keep working during a war or a blackout. This is essential for society readiness.

unishark 6y ago
I'm sure they have generators for handling blackouts. Even my local grocery can keep operating in a blackout. Some people can't survive without machines after all. They occasionally get caught by rarer situations like a blackout combined with a flood which takes out the generators.
- sideshowb 6y ago
  I've more than once been turned away from a supermarket because the POS system is down. My local shop on the other hand would have no issues. Strictly cash only, or a verbal credit agreement if you don't have enough on you. The proprietor refuses to get a card machine, says the risk is too great for a business with such low margins.

leetcrew 6y ago

> I reckon even a restaurant with a modern POS system would be problematic to switch to paper, ad-hoc. it would be slower and a couple more orders might get messed up, but it's not that big of a problem. a lot of restaurant POS systems are just a calculator with a touchscreen that prints two tickets per order (one for the kitchen, and one for the servers) and tells you how much to charge the customer. then the kitchen spikes their copy when they finish the order, and the server spikes theirs after they bring it to the table. on fancier ones, the tickets are just shown on a screen and you "spike" them by pressing the done button. anybody who understands how to do their job in the first place can emulate the digital system on pen-and-paper. in fact, the POS went down more than once when I worked in restaurants, and this is exactly what we did.

wccrawford 6y ago

When I worked at a grocery store 25+ years ago, having the computer systems go down didn't mean we couldn't check people out. But it was hard enough to deal with that we always waited for them to come back up before checking people out again. Recently, after a hurricane, I heard local supermarkets were checking people out manually. It involved looking up prices of everything (by running to the shelf, I think!) and then writing it down and doing actual math. I was amazed that they even tried it. It's so difficult as to be nearly impossible thanks to the way things are done in normal times. And that's just a grocery store. Medical stuff has to be way, way harder.