Flowsheets and daylight saving time
A change of daylight saving time can cause patient flowsheets to show unusual times. For example, flowsheets can show, missing hours, the same hour two times, or the same date as other flowsheets.
Note: This documentation is only applicable to practices that have patients that stay during the night when a daylight saving change occurs.
This table gives:
- The type of daylight saving change
- The result of the change as shown in SmartFlow
- Tasks that your organization can do to help with the change
| Daylight saving change | Result of the change in SmartFlow | What your organization can do |
|---|---|---|
| Start of daylight saving time |
| If you do not want a flowsheet to start one hour after it usually starts, discharge the patient and admit them again. |
| End of daylight saving time |
Important: If your practice is in Australia, New Zealand, or Europe, flowsheets show one more 2 AM column. They do not show one more 1 AM column. | If you do not want a flowsheet to start one hour before it usually starts, discharge the patient and do their admission again. |
Daylight saving changes and missing hours in flowsheets
A change to daylight saving can cause missing hours in flowsheets. The missing hours are only applicable when a practice manager sets Flowsheet start time to a specified time. For example, if a practice manager set Flowsheet start time to 8:00 am, the flowsheet will have a missing hour. If the practice manager sets Flowsheet start time to 12:00 am, the flowsheet will show the same hour two times.
Note: The same amount of time is covered on one flowsheet (24 hours), it will just appear different because of the addition or the subtraction of one hour.
In case you find this to be confusing for your staff, you can always discharge the patient and start a new flowsheet for Sunday, which will start at the usual time. This will only be relevant for patients staying in hospital on both the day where DST occurs and the following day.Note: If you try to change a template for a patient which was created before the DST it causes the system to set the time on the patient's flowsheet as per the time before DST. For example, if you select Change Template and choose the start time at 8 a.m., SmartFlow sets the patient's flowsheet at 7 a.m.