The first thing you may think of when envisioning a synchronized network of clocks in a workplace may be that of company employees working together and knowing where to be at all times, whether it's a meeting, lunch break, or a shift change. In a hospital setting, you can add things like the staff arriving in a patient's room at once, or a team of surgeons preparing to do their job together in the same place.
Time synchronization may sound simple, but it's extremely important in hospitals and other medical settings. In fact, one of the ways to add time synchronization networks in a hospital will actually help save money.
Obey Your Master
The first building block of network timekeeping is having a reliable master clock. Whether it's wired, WiFi or PoE, make sure your master clock is linked to a source that is synchronized with the atomic clock in Colorado, the most accurate timekeeping device on the planet.
Once the master clock has a rock solid source of time, the rest of the clocks in the network will follow suit and keep synchronous time.
Cutting Edge Timekeeping
Surgeons need synchronized clocks for various reasons. Getting doctors and other staff from different places in a hospital to a single operating room at the same time is one good reason. Another: keeping track of two different types of time simultaneously, which can be done with an elapsed time clock.
During a procedure, surgeons need to know two things when it comes to time:
- Actual time of day
- Elapsed time of the procedure
This is done with a simple flip of a switch on an elapsed time clock. If you are building a hospital, make sure you have elapsed time clocks synchronized into the network, so the time taken for surgical procedures can be documented.
Insurance Matters and Clock Networks
Healthcare and insurance go hand-in-hand these days, and a network of reliable clocks can help ensure timely procedures while pushing payments along more efficiently.
Many different jobs are executed throughout the course of a day at a hospital, and many of them are recorded, particularly when it comes to caring for a patient. Insurance companies keep close tabs on these records to make sure things like surgeries take place when scheduled, and medications are dispensed on time. If an insurance company sees a discrepancy, payments can be delayed, which can have a negative effect on patients or hospital personnel. A network of clocks can make sure these procedures are accurately recorded and payments are expedited.
Frankly, the insurance factor may be the most important to a hospital's bottom line. Faster payments that result from accurate timekeeping can make the difference between frustrated patients and personnel — or more business in the future. A network of synchronized clocks can help.
