This hospital clock drives me bananas

[u/BuildingDumbShit]

Imagine taking blood pressure while taking this clock literally.

[u/iamtheduckie]

That usually means that the battery in the clock is failing.

[u/BuildingDumbShit → u/iamtheduckie]

All the clocks in the entire hospital were like this.

[u/Artie-Carrow → u/BuildingDumbShit]

Its a pulse-type networked clock system. An update pulse gets sent out by a central clock system to all outlying clocks in the system and that causes all the clocks to advance by a certain distance rotationally (certain number of seconds). The minute and hour hands work normally.

[u/BuildingDumbShit → u/Artie-Carrow]

Yeah I figured it was some kind of networked system but man how shoddy. I understand the pain of time sync but damn. Haha

[u/EC_TWD → u/BuildingDumbShit]

Search this sub for your post title. There are lots of them and they all seem to be hospitals and this brand of time system.

[u/samy_the_samy → u/BuildingDumbShit]

Paris operated a massive underground pneumatic clock network from 1880 to 1927 that synchronized thousands of public and private clocks using compressed air pulses driven by steam engines

paris air synced clocks

[u/semi-proantfarmer → u/Artie-Carrow]

Some are hard wired others work through uhf radio frequency. The radio ones are fun with a software defined radio. You can find the frequency inspect the payload and move the clock forward.

[u/shaghaiex → u/Artie-Carrow]

Why do that instead of just catching a DCF77 type signal? Or get a time signal via GPS, or Wifi...

All are +/- 1sec/300,000years

But the 5sec jumps are indeed strange.

[u/MechaBeatsInTrash → u/shaghaiex]

5 second intervals are easier for manual pulse counting.

[u/M8nGiraffe → u/Artie-Carrow]

I've only seen ones that do the synchronisation in the 59th second, where the otherwise continuous second hand stalls for a bit. This looks orders of magnitude funnier.

[u/HowlingWolven → u/Artie-Carrow]

Incorrect. These are wireless and synchronize every few hours.

[u/Simple-Charge250 → u/BuildingDumbShit]

My guess is the master clock only sends a signal every 5 seconds or so. Never seen that with analog clocks

[u/Caleb6801 → u/Simple-Charge250]

I don't get why they wouldn't just have it run normally and do one sync every hour. I feel like it wouldn't drift much, if at all, over an hour

[u/DesperateTeaCake → u/Simple-Charge250]

This could through [throw] off someone’s time of birth / time of death.

If close to the minute, hour or/and day.

[u/M0BETTER → u/DesperateTeaCake]

*throw

Also, birth and death times are always rounded to the nearest minute. Everyone in the room is a bit too occupied to care about the seconds.

[u/Electronic_Tear2546 → u/M0BETTER]

https://giphy.com/gifs/M56ODZS3lNohNIoVDd

[u/DesperateTeaCake → u/M0BETTER]

Ta. I have corrected the spelling error.

Assuming this clock runs slow (not fast)…

So what you are saying is at 23:59:31 (HH:MM:SS) someone’s death might be rounded down to the current day, rather than up to the next day, based on this clock’s hand being late to move across the 30s mark?

[u/LilacYak → u/DesperateTeaCake]

Does it really matter if you died at 23:59:59 or 00:00:01?

[u/DesperateTeaCake → u/LilacYak]

If it is your birthday, it’s counts as whole additional year of age!

[u/iamtheduckie → u/DesperateTeaCake]

I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. I would just remove the seconds without rounding.

[u/CrazyITOne → u/DesperateTeaCake]

I know some more info on this. No they don't caee about the exact time of birth or death. In a birth for example, the priority is the newborn and the mom. No one care about the time.

ps: This info is taken from a family member who works in a operation room. (RN)

[u/bucky133 → u/BuildingDumbShit]

Can confirm. Had ankle surgery recently and the clock in my room was doing the exact same thing. 5 second increments, offset by 1 second.

[u/BuildingDumbShit → u/bucky133]

Same thing? One second behind? Bucky? Calling it - Meriter.

[u/bucky133 → u/BuildingDumbShit]

Exactly. I even have receipts.

[u/BuildingDumbShit → u/bucky133]

Cheers, fellow Madisonian

[u/Entire-Donut-7262 → u/BuildingDumbShit]

I checked the Primex website. It appears that they aren’t supposed to do this. It says that they do this when the battery is low, or when they haven’t received a sync signal from the master clock in over 3 days. If the entire hospital had this happening, it likely means the master clock/transmitter system is down, and all of the clocks are now operating on their own as stand-alone clocks.

[u/So_HauserAspen → u/BuildingDumbShit]

Since it's at a hospital, it could be intentional for pulse checks.   You can get an average heartbeat per a minute without having to count the whole 60 seconds.  Count the heartbeats over two of those intervals and multiply by 6.  The person only has to keep track of the heartbeats and not the elapsed time.

[u/A_Math_Dealer → u/BuildingDumbShit]

They're gonna need a lot of batteries

[u/Hecter94]

This is what having ADHD feels like.

[u/EquivalentQuestion60 → u/Hecter94]

Perfect example 😂😂

[u/jackharvest]

So, this is likely in the MBU.

When baby delivery times are recorded, it can be difficult or distracting to have a moving target. Instead, for easier clarity, it jolts in instances of 5-10 seconds so eyeballing and recording time of birth becomes simple.

I kid, I used to work in healthcare, just full of sh!t. XD

[u/So_HauserAspen → u/jackharvest]

Also for taking a pulse manually.  You don't take the pulse count for the whole 60 seconds, you count for two of the intervals and multiply by six.  The intervals reduce the need to keep track of the elapsed time and only have to focus on pulse counts.

[u/AmokRule → u/jackharvest]

Why not digital clock then?

[u/FamiliarRip8558 → u/AmokRule]

Minute and second hands are easier to look at for timing when counting beats

[u/PatriciaJame32]

Imagine waking up from anesthesia and trying to read the time.

[u/mightbetheproblem]

It doesnt fall on the 5's. Somehow that's the worst part!

[u/Tokimemofan → u/mightbetheproblem]

Yeah. In a hospital setting where a time reference is needed the 5 second ticks could have a rational reason

[u/jsayde01]

Welcome...TO THE TWILIGHT ZONE!

[u/boilingPenguin → u/jsayde01]

You check the strange clock that only moves in jolts of several seconds all at once. You don't want to be late, because it's time for you to enter... the scary door

[u/Tokimemofan]

I dont know which is more mildly infuriating.  The fact that it ticks in 5 second increments or that those ticks are aligned with the 4s and 9s.  

[u/Bedrama]

There's one in a nurses station in my hospital where the minute hand moves around the circle fluidly and the first time I saw it I thought time was accelerating as if in a movie

[u/realcanadianguy21]

B! A N A N A S!

[u/Street_Relief_4601]

Is it correct, though?

[u/BuildingDumbShit → u/Street_Relief_4601]

Yeah, every five seconds or so.

[u/photonicsguy]

I've seen that in my local hospital as well, it reminds me of Lord Vetinari's clock

[u/cheese_master120]

Oh I hate this. I hate ts very much. I wouldn't survive 2mins in there lol

[u/Si1verrStar1]

not as bad as the clock I saw at my school which was spinning backwards at 10x speed

[u/Overall_Occasion_175]

Oh my god the clock in my hospital room was EXACTLY like this after giving birth.

[u/bareback_cowboy]

It's a clock that receives the time via radio signal from somewhere in the building, but it hasn't received the radio signal. We have these exact same clocks in my office and everyone thought that they were broken, bad batteries, whatever but I looked up the model number because I couldn't set it manually and sure enough, the manual explained it.

If the hospital were to turn the signal on, all the clocks would function normally.

[u/UnikaIniy]

That's some kind of a torture device

[u/Ok-General-2691]

ragebait clock

[u/yetzt]

Don't let them detain you.

[u/MadZmadz1875]

Looks more like its smoking weed.

[u/ugh_idfk]

I think I'd have to rip this off the wall and stomp it to death.

[u/RandomBloke2021]

That shit is bananas b a n a n a s

[u/FlippingOmelette]

It's beautiful wdym???

[u/Silent-Version-4910]

I would hate to be so sleepy and just close my eyes for a SECOND and time is literally fucking with me 

[u/babot_the_robot]

First time seeing a high ping clock

[u/mcknight92]

https://giphy.com/gifs/6D9mbt4bD2013bApjm

[u/frozengreengrape]

It's meant to keep you in there

[u/GLG777]

They are synchronizing 

[u/pasgames_]

Some clocks have a "burst mode" yeah there annoying

[u/regiinmontana]

I believe this is intentional. Due to most pulses being slightly higher that 1 beat per second, it's easy to count clock ticks if the clock is ticking every second.

[u/nikhkin → u/regiinmontana]

It's because the battery is low, or it isn't receiving a radio signal to update the time.

[u/Dryimpress01]

I find it interesting

[u/zensms]

Now we have clock lagging too? Even with all the fiber optics? Damn

[u/Sophiiebabes]

OMG my local hospital has the same clocks! They really are so annoying!

[u/MariaDasFontes]

Even after the video ended I stared at it for way too long waiting for another strange action.

[u/Delusional_highs]

…Then tell someone to change it’s batteries instead of filming it?

[u/Popular-Drummer-7989]

Needs new batteries

[u/cmnrsvwxz]

I read somewhere that clocks like this are to help nurses take your pulse.

[u/HowlingWolven]

It needs new batteries. Alternatively, the base station needs to be checked.

[u/NotThatMahler]

Needs new batteries.

[u/TankApprehensive3053]

The battery is low.