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Design Guidance – Time Display (PDF format)

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Design Guidance – Date and Time Input (PDF format)

Guidance – Time Input and Display

These Design Guides are two of nine documents relating to patient demographic data which have been adopted by the Information Standards Board for Health and Social Care (ISB) as a full standard for implementation in healthcare systems. Further information can be found at Information Standards Board.

Introduction

The Design Guidance – Time Display document provides you with guidance and recommendations for implementing and displaying time in clinical applications. It enables unambiguous time display, while enhancing patient safety and clinical application usability, by:

• Eliminating ambiguity at noon and midnight
• Distinguishing between the last minute of the day and the first minute of the next day
• Representing clearly the individual elements of the time
• Displaying a period of time
• Displaying duration
• Displaying the clock using 24-hour notation unless otherwise stated
• Removing the confusion between AM and PM

The Design Guidance – Date and Time Input document provides you with guidance and recommendations for entering time information in clinical applications.

The accurate entry of time is a fundamental function within clinical applications, and, in many cases, has safety implications for patients within clinical and administrative processes. The guidance given enables unambiguous time entry, while enhancing patient safety and clinical application usability by:

• Providing a clear mechanism for guiding the user towards entry of an accurate value, therefore reducing human error
• Providing efficient input controls for the user to enter values in a fast and easy manner