Advice for Patients: Change in Daylight Saving Time May Affect Your Medical Equipment in an Unpredictable Way

March 1, 2007

If you have any medical equipment that uses, creates or records time information about your diagnosis or treatment and the manufacturer has not updated it, the equipment may not work properly when the new Daylight Saving Time (DST) starts and ends this year and in future years.

Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. starts three weeks earlier and ends one week later this year, compared to the last several years. Medical equipment you use was likely made before the DST rules were recently changed and so your equipment may use the wrong dates for the start and end of daylight saving time.

If you experience a problem, it’s most likely to occur on the following dates:

• March 11 (New date for start of DST)
• April 1 (Old date for start of DST)
• October 28 (Old date for end of DST)
• November 4 (New date for end of DST)

The extent and seriousness of this problem is unclear. We do not know if any medical equipment will be affected, how it will be affected, or how it may affect patients. Although we don't know what specific equipment may fail to work correctly, we are concerned about equipment that consumers or patients use in their homes. We have already notified doctors, nurses, and hospitals of our concerns with a Preliminary Public Health Notification.

What you need to do

• If you are a patient or caregiver, look at your medical equipment and its instructions to see whether it uses or displays time.

• If so, contact the manufacturer of the equipment and find out if it needs any software or other patch or fix so it will continue to operate correctly when daylight saving time becomes effective on March 11, 2007.

• If you cannot determine who the manufacturer of your medical equipment is or can't contact them, notify your doctor before March 11, 2007, to find out if it's safe to continue using your medical equipment.

• Check your medical equipment after 2:00 AM on March 11, 2007 to make sure it displays the correct time before you rely on it. If your medical equipment displays or uses the incorrect time, tell the manufacturer about your equipment and ask your doctor before you use it.

• When you use your medical equipment after 2:00 AM on April 1, 2007, which was the old scheduled date, make sure it displays the correct time before you rely on the equipment. If your medical equipment displays or uses the incorrect time, tell the manufacturer about your equipment and ask your doctor before you use it.

• Remember to check the time your equipment is displaying on October 28, 2007, and on November 4, 2007, to assure that it’s correct.