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America Braces For Daylight Saving Time - And Missing Medical Records (usatoday.com)

"One hundred years after Congress passed the first daylight saving legislation, more and more people are doubting the wisdom of changing the clocks," writes PBS, noting that it actually makes Americans use more electricity and consume more gasoline.

"If you can find anyone who supports this, they're probably just trolling you," writes Inc magazine's contributor editor, adding "Literally everyone hates it... It's almost impossible to find anyone who still supports this insane, anachronistic idea, which is leftover from a German coal conservation idea during World War I, and our heck-we'll-try-anything panic during the energy crisis of the 1970s." In fact, one study found that while consumer spending increases a bit at the start of daylight savings, it drops a full 3.5 percent in the wrong direction when it ends. (Which will happen tonight in most U.S. states at 2:00 a.m.)

And now USA Today points out that hospital software "still can't handle daylight saving time: Epic Systems, one of the most popular electronic health records software systems used by hospitals, can delete records or require cumbersome workarounds when clocks are set back for an hour -- prompting many hospitals to opt for paper records for part of the night shift. And it happens every year... Dr. Steven Stack, a past president of the American Medical Association, called the glitches "perplexing" and "unacceptable," considering that hospitals spend millions of dollars on these systems, and Apple and Google seem to have dealt with seasonal time changes long ago...

Carol Hawthorne-Johnson, an intensive care unit nurse in California, said her hospital doesn't shut down the Epic system during the fall time change. But she's come to expect that the vital signs she enters into the system from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday will be deleted when the clock falls back to 1 a.m. One hour's worth of electronic record-keeping "is gone," she said. Hospital staff have learned to deal with it by taking extra chart notes by hand... Many hospitals use Cerner, another major electronic medical records company. Those hospitals plan for Cerner to be down during the time change, too.

6 of 368 comments (clear)

  1. Just sick of this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The absolute worst part of DST is the stupid semiannual bitchfest on Slashdot.

    1. Re:Just sick of this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      well slashdot's editors are on a hate-on-america kick.. it's not surprising this article is here.

  2. Re:Google Anyway.... by blindseer · · Score: 1, Funny

    Apples watch whose sole purpose is telling time managed to brick for 24-hours recently when Australia changed time.

    If someone is buying an Apple Watch only to tell time then they are doing it wrong.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  3. Re:Here's some fun by blindseer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Give someone some LSD tonight and then change the clocks.

    I do that every weekend, what makes this weekend any different?

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  4. Is it really that difficult? by ukoda · · Score: 5, Funny

    Am I the only one who finds it amusing that America can defend the use of Imperial measurements and yet is it daylights savings that is too hard?

    Yea, sorry, mark down as flame bait if you must, but I still find this funny.

  5. Han Solo in carbonite by Latent+Heat · · Score: 4, Funny

    The "word on the street" is that Epic Systems has a high level of employee turnover, in part because of burnout of the persons involved, in part because the company's approach to firing people being that of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland ("Off with his head!").

    I have been told by people who have been out to their Verona, WI campus that there is a wall, where employees reaching their 2-year employment anniversary record their hand prints in plaster. I guess a 2 year anniversary is a big milestone if you work there.

    My question is, are those hand prints on the outside pushing in, or are do they appear from the inside of the wall pushing out?