I was in the ED the other day and noticed that they use a mix of Windows 7 and Windows 10. My question is two part.

  1. Do you know of hospitals using Linux?
  2. Besides legacy software and unwanted downtime, is there any reason why they wouldn’t use Linux?
  • @ShittyBeatlesFCPres
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    8 months ago

    Epic, which most large hospital systems seem to run, has a Linux version but I’ve never seen it in the wild. Every healthcare worker I’ve met loathes Epic — I asked around about it because a doctor and nurse complained about it to me randomly because I’m a developer. I live near some hospitals so I often chit chat with healthcare workers who are neighbors or at bars or whatever. I wouldn’t consider people commiserating about work at a bar to be a representative sample but it seems like complaining about Epic is a thing.

    I also don’t know for sure if this is 100% true but healthcare IT people have told me never to work for a hospital because HIPAA violations (like a data breach) can make the IT guy liable for the violations. I looked it up once and it seems like it’s more C-suite people who are actually held liable. (but more likely a CTO or CEO) can be held liable. But the threat is there and having another company to blame is a big reason some institutions use Windows. No one saves you if a Linux vulnerability exposes patient data.

    Again, my source is barroom banter and not lived experience. Hopefully, someone with direct knowledge can correct me where I’m wrong.

    • @ShittyBeatlesFCPres
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      18 months ago

      If you say you work in software, a lot of people are like, “The software at my job sucks.” So, I don’t know how much to take seriously and how much is just that everyone kind of hates the indignity of paid labor.