Anaesthesia record times on 5-minute marks are rounded up¶
An anaesthesia start or end entered on a 5-minute mark was rounded up to it: the event happened in the 5 minutes before, and on average a little earlier still. Clear for anaesthesia end; for anaesthesia start the margin is small, and the value model (How the anesthesia start time was charted) prefers rounding to the nearest mark.
| Status | established: shown on many cases, with a control. |
| Clocks | Hospital records clock |
| Devices | Clinical records |
| Variables | Anaesthesia record events |
What it means¶
Taking a 5-minute entry at face value puts the event about 2.5 minutes late on average.
What is done about it¶
The clinical_time labels give each time its interval and the earliest moment it could be known.
Evidence¶
| Study | Date | Status | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| How the anesthesia start time was charted | 2026-10-18 | current | The charted anesthesia start time is a mixture of 5 ways of writing a clock time (nominal_0740, nominal_0730, nearest_10min, nearest_5min, clock_minute), modelled as an offset from a device time. |
| How the anesthesia end time was charted | 2026-10-18 | current | The charted anesthesia end time is a mixture of 4 ways of writing a clock time (ceiling_30min, ceiling_10min, ceiling_5min, clock_minute), modelled as an offset from a device time. |
| Anaesthesia record times are rounded up | 2026-10-12 | current | Anaesthesia start and end entered on a 5-minute mark sit 90–290 s later, against device markers, than entries typed to the minute. Rounding up to the next 5 minutes fits every one of 11 markers better than rounding to the nearest or down. |