A common issue with wireless hospital clocks today is spanning the signal throughout the entire building. When the main transmitter is placed at one end of the facility, the clocks at the other end may not catch a strong enough signal to synchronize. And when clocks aren’t synchronizing, the once accurate time display slowly slips away. There are several remedies for this issue. Many clock manufacturers have relied on high-power transmitters to send a wireless signal out to all clocks in the school. However, a nurse, doctor, or facility manager may not find 5 to 30 watt radio waves traveling through the air in a contained building to be the safest thing. When the hospital is weary of sending these transmissions throughout their building, high-power transmitters may not be the best remedy.

Sending a signal out to all wireless school clocks can also be done through low-power transmissions, but sometimes there is a catch. Not every low-power solution comes free of headaches or extra costs. Perhaps the most common, yet cumbersome solution to spanning a low-power, wireless signal across the building is with the use of multiple repeaters. A repeater, also referred to as a wireless repeater, takes the signal from the main transmitter and redistributes it out to other clocks in the vicinity—inevitably spreading the signal farther than the main transmitter was initially capable of.

While repeaters are useful in many situations, they are only efficient when used infrequently. For instance, one repeater might be used to carry the signal to hospital clocks from one building to another. In another situation, the repeater might be used to send a signal into a room or corridor within the hospital that is surrounded by mass amounts of concrete, rebar, or heavy machinery. These are all cases that make the repeater an efficient option. However, repeaters become inefficient when they are widespread throughout the building. Because the low-power transmitter cannot send the signal to even one section of the building, the technician installing the system may suggest using multiple repeaters. When a school starts to install eight, nine, or even ten repeaters just to get every clock in the building to receive the signal, the cost of the entire system increases significantly and compromises the all-together efficiency a wireless system normally provides.

At this point, one might think that successfully sending a signal out to all hospital clocks without the aforementioned issues is a lost cause. However, there is one solution that can span the entire building, but does not use high-power transmissions or multiple repeaters. This solution is called the "mesh network". The mesh network, while it is not a viable option through most manufacturers, is the use of wireless clocks with built-in repeaters—a technology in which each clock has the ability to receive as well as send a wireless signal to other clocks in its radius. This means that as the clocks send and receive signals over multiple paths, the wireless signal eventually forms a mesh network. With this solution, the wireless signal can be sent over a 1-watt, low-power transmission, and does not require the use of multiple repeaters. For the best way to synchronize the clocks within your hospital or healthcare facility, contact a manufacturer that produces wireless hospital clocks with built-in repeaters.