title: Time telling devices used in Danish health care are not synchronized.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many patients begin their encounter with the health-care services in an ambulance. In some critical patients, it is pivotal that the timing of treatment and events is registered correctly. When patients are transferred from one health care provider to another, there is a risk that the time telling devices used are not synchronized. It has never been examined if this is a problem in Denmark. We performed the present study to examine if time telling devices used in the pre-hospital setting were synchronized with devices used in emergency departments.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used an on-line atomic clock as reference time. The reference time was compared to watches found in the resuscitation rooms at emergency departments at two hospitals in Denmark. Furthermore, we compared the reference time to the watches on the defibrillators in the ambulances at two ambulance stations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The watches in the Emergency Department at Sydvestjysk Hospital Esbjerg had a median deviation of minus three minutes. In the Emergency Department at Hospital Lillebælt Kolding, we found a median deviation of minus 30 seconds. The watches in the defibrillators of 11 ambulances had a median deviation of minus 45 seconds. The maximum deviation between two devices was 19 minutes and 5 seconds, and the maximum deviation between a wall-mounted clock in an emergency department and a defibrillator in an ambulance was five minutes and 22 seconds.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Examining the time telling devices at two Danish emergency departments and 11 ambulances demonstrated that they are not synchronized.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  not relevant.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  not relevant. The study was not registered, as it is an observational study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Sydvestjysk Hospital Esbjerg, 6700 Esbjerg, Denmark. mikkel@brabrand.net
authors.forename: Mikkel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brabrand
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hosbond
authors.forename: Dan Brun
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Petersen
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Skovhede
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Folkestad
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000552:Ambulances / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003718:Denmark; D004631:Emergency Medical Service Communication Systems; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013995:Time