Windows XP End Of Life and a Health Service Provider

The other day while working on my old laptop at home (well it is about 5 years old) A message popped up that said Windows XP support ends April ?, 2014. So I figure I have to bite the bullet and now get the extra memory I have been putting off and also think about what else I have to do to rebuild this old workhorse. It does what I need it to do but the time has come.

Then while in work I get a message from my wife saying that XP is going away what do we have to do keep our home data safe. I calm her down in that we only have XP on the laptops in the house. Although I am running Vista on our main PC in the house which will shortly be rebuilt to run LINUX. But that is a story for another blog entry. 

Then today I go to get blood work before I go into the office. Mind you I normally don't get rolling until 7 AM but today I have to get up at 6 and to the lab to wait in line to get stuck, so I am no happy camper. No coffee, breakfast and it is a bit nippy out.

As I finally get called in after a 35 minute wait I get asked for my Credit card, which I think is odd and since I am not a chipper fellow I start grumbliung as I give it to the person. Just before I get up I ask "What if I don't have a Credit card?" She said "Oh then we just don't take it and move on." So I ask that my credit card be removed from their system. This started a Laurel and Hardy act as they tried to find the correct spot to remove the card. All done with that and I move on to get stuck.

As I sit in the chair I catch the screen saver on the Terminal and see it says Windows XP. So I start to think, heck when are they going to upgrade their systems? How safe is my medical data here? What are their reasons for not moving up the proverbial Microsoft ladder?

Needless to say that all of this going through my head made it very easy for the technician to find the sweet spot and I was out of there in a few minutes. But it just made me wonder are they going to upgrade their systems in April? I worry about giving my Credit Card but it has become a neccessity at times. 

We pay for things on line everyday and more and more we do things electronically because it is easier and quicker. But when you walk into a facility that looks brand new and the equipment looks new but under the hood it is still running last years stuff. 

Here at $WORK we went to Windows 7 on all machines, hence is why I got a new laptop. But all of my stuff I attached to my machine which ran on XP runs just as fine on Windows 7. I truly understand how Software has issues when you upgrade an OS but with all of the security and regulations in the Health industry I start to wonder why they haven't moved on.

Now if I never saw that screen saver or if they never asked me for my credit card I would have been none the wiser. If I didn't have to fast before going I might have been a more mellow person instead of channeling my best Snickers commercial, either way this will make me ask some questions the next time I go to a medical facility.