Very commonly, a hospital will be comprised of more than just one or two buildings. Well known hospitals such as CHOP in Philadelphia or John Hopkins in Baltimore have their main centralized buildings, and also are surrounded by multiple other buildings—creating the campus setting. These other buildings usually consist of facilities dedicated to research, education, or even housing for employees. As part of the hospital, these facilities need to be organized and systematic; meaning the clocks, computers, and all other devices a hospital campus uses on a regular basis will need to operate in sync. For instance, the hospital clocks on every wall in the main building should match, or be synchronized, with the clocks in the research center. Additionally, the devices that aren’t hospital clocks, such as a printer or computer, but have a time display should have matching times as well. Without it, the entire facility is foregoing the organization and efficiency that synchronized time has to offer.

There are many solutions available for a hospital campus that needs to synchronize all of their clocks from one building to the other. They may choose from wireless technologies, where the wireless signal can be spanned to all corners of the campus. However, a more formidable solution for the multi-building campus would be IP hospital clocks with an internal NTP server. With this solution, the time signal is distributed to every last building on the campus, but without wireless signals. In this case, the IP hospital clocks will work through the facility’s existing network to span it’s time signal. And with the internal NTP server used, those aforementioned devices such as the computers and printers throughout the hospital campus can sync to the same time.

Synchronized time with IP hospital clocks in the campus setting is accomplished by simply hooking up to the facility’s network with an Ethernet cable. The clock communicates over the network, receiving accurate time as well as any instructions or configurations from the user. Since each building in the hospital campus is working off of the same Ethernet network, all the IP hospital clocks will be working on the same network as well, showing the same time, and being managed and monitored from the same source. When the NTP server is used, the synchronized time from the clocks is extended to all other networked devices as well, such as the printer, computers, time attendance machines, and many more. Similar to the IP hospital clock, the NTP server hooks up to the campus’ network as well. However, the NTP server will distribute the time over the network, as opposed to receiving it, allowing all devices to receive their time synchronization.

When installing IP hospital clocks with the addition of an NTP server to a hospital campus, all the buildings, down to the clock in the parking garage, will be synchronized to the same time—keeping employees and personnel on track and increasing efficiency. Additionally, with the NTP server, all the other time associated devices connected to the hospital’s network will also receive that accurate time—keeping all the devices and the employees that use them synchronized. With IP hospital clocks, time displays will be consistent and matching, no matter what the size of the campus.