Regional Medical Center Wired Clocks System Replacement Case Study

Accurate Time Coordination is Critical at Regional Medical Center in Manchester, Iowa. So American Time was the natural choice.

Iowa’s Delaware County Regional Medical Center first opened its doors in 1950. The rural 39-bed, acute-care facility expanded in 1955 and again in 1977. More recently, RMC opened a new 44,000 square-foot Medical Office Building attached to the 110,000 square-foot hospital.

Challenge

Every expansion project requires important, long-term decisions to be made. When the Information Systems Department investigated the clock system, they chose to replace the original Simplex clock system from 1977 with a wireless system.

“A 3-wire synchronous clock system is difficult and costly to expand. We had to look at the short and long-term investment and the total cost of ownership,” said information systems technician Cliff Adcock.

Solution

RMC chose the SiteSync IQ® wireless clock for its expansion. “Before the American Time wireless clock system, daylight saving time changes were manual for us,” explained Adcock. “In the fall, we would turn off the master clock and clocks for an hour. In the spring, we had to re-set the entire clock system and sit and wait for the clocks to correct. We chose wireless clocks because you can hang them anywhere and DST changes are automatic. The cost of batteries is much cheaper than the labor it takes to reset all the clocks.”

Results

RMC also chose to keep their Simplex clocks running, and American Time SiteSync IQ clocks seamlessly integrate with the existing wired system clocks. As the old wired clocks fail, they are sent to American Time where the clock repair experts remove the mechanical movement and replace it with a wireless receiver and movement. The clocks fit perfectly in the existing Simplex back boxes and the clocks retain their original look.

Accurate time coordination is critical at RMC. Medicare, Medicaid and insurance companies require accurate time stamps on treatments, tests, and admissions. “The patient record must reflect a true representation of the actual time. It can’t look like it takes 15 minutes to walk down the hall from admissions to Obstetrics. Time has to be as accurate and consistent from one area to another as possible,” according to Adcock.

Adcock and the Information Systems team count on the clock experts at American Time to answer their questions. “Everyone we’ve talked to has been very knowledgeable. I don’t want to spend my time reading a manual. I like to get someone on the phone and they walk me through the issue. I really appreciate the support from a live person who knows what they’re talking about.”