Impact of Daylight Saving Time on the Clinical Laboratory

Alexandra Ehlers; Richard L Dyson; Christina K Hodgson; Scott R Davis; Matthew D Krasowski

doi:10.1177/2374289518784222

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Impact of Daylight Saving Time on the Clinical Laboratory

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Impact of Daylight Saving Time on the Clinical Laboratory

Alexandra Ehlers, Richard L Dyson, Christina K Hodgson, Scott R Davis and Matthew D Krasowski

Academic pathology, Vol.5, pp.2374289518784222-2374289518784222

01/2018

DOI: 10.1177/2374289518784222

PMCID: PMC6047237

PMID: 30023429

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Abstract

Daylight saving time is a practice in some countries and local regions to set clocks forward (typically 1 hour) during the longer days of summer and back again in autumn. Time changes resulting from daylight saving time have the potential to impact clinical laboratory instruments, computer interfaces, and information systems. We analyzed turnaround time data for an academic medical center clinical laboratories (chemistry, hematology, blood gas analyzer, and transfusion medicine), examining how turnaround time was impacted by the daylight saving time shifts in 2017. We also determined whether the daylight saving time shift on November 5, 2017 ("fall back" by 1 hour) resulted in any "absurd" time combinations such as a receipt time occurring "before" a normally later time such as final result. We also describe challenges resulting from daylight saving time changes over a 5-year period. The only significant impact on turnaround time was for clinical chemistry samples during the autumn daylight saving time change, but the overall impact was low. Four instances of absurd time combinations occurred in the autumn time change with only a transfusion medicine example resulting in an interface error (a Type and Screen resulted "before" receipt in laboratory). Over a 5-year period, other daylight saving time impacts included problems of reestablishing interface to instruments, inadvertent discrepancies in manual time changes at different points of the core laboratory automation line, and time change errors in instruments with older operating systems lacking patches that updated daylight saving time rules after 2007. Clinical laboratories should be aware that rare problems may occur due to issues with daylight saving time changes.

transfusion medicine

hematology

Software

electronic health record

clinical chemistry tests

clinical laboratory information system

Details

Title: Subtitle: Impact of Daylight Saving Time on the Clinical Laboratory
Creators: Alexandra Ehlers - Department of Pathology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA, USA
Richard L Dyson - Health Care Information Systems, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA, USA
Christina K Hodgson - Department of Pathology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA, USA
Scott R Davis - Department of Pathology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA, USA
Matthew D Krasowski - Department of Pathology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA, USA
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Academic pathology, Vol.5, pp.2374289518784222-2374289518784222
DOI: 10.1177/2374289518784222
PMID: 30023429
PMCID: PMC6047237
NLM abbreviation: Acad Pathol
ISSN: 2374-2895
eISSN: 2374-2895
Publisher: United States
Language: English
Date published: 01/2018
Academic Unit: Pathology
Record Identifier: 9984046831202771

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