B.C. Health Information Standards for Date and Time

The Government of British Columbia Health Information Date and Time Standard document defines standardized formats, minimum data capture requirements, clinical context rules, and data quality and reporting expectations for the use of date and time within British Columbia’s health care community.

The accurate recording and interpretation of dated entries is fundamental to the delivery of health care services and provides any BC health system organization immediate value in the capture, maintenance, search, retrieval and validation of clinical records using date and time in clinical documentation and presentation in electronic health records.

The standards in the B.C. Health Information Standards for Date and Time document are based on the International Standards Organization’s (ISO) 8601 Extended Date/Time Format (EDTF) and ISO/TS 22220: 2008 Health Informatics – Identification of subjects of health care, and other international standards which can be used by providers who want to use a standardized way of presenting date and time.

Scope

The Standard and Guide specify representations of dates, based on the Gregorian calendar, and times based on the 24-hour timekeeping system. The formats of these data element representations include:

• calendar dates expressed using calendar year, month and day of the month

• local time using 24-hour format

• Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) of day

• local time and the difference from UTC

• combination of date and time of day

• time intervals

• recurring time intervals

• date accuracy indicator

• date/time accuracy indicator.

The target audience for the health information date and time standard includes clinicians, health information management professionals, and information technology specialists. It also targets digital health solution (DHS) vendors, such as electronic medical record (EMR), clinical information system (CIS), and pharmacy management system (PMS) providers. Additionally, this standard serves a broader general audience having either an interest in health information or date time standards in general.

Governance

B.C. Health Information Standards are endorsed by ministry executives and developed in consultation with program areas, subject matter experts, and advisory reference groups that include representation at the provincial and pan-Canadian level.

Current Status

Version 1.4 of the standard incudes Pacific Time, interoperability, and conformance updates.

Maintenance

Significant analysis and review of documents and specifications were undertaken to make sure the standards developed would be applicable and attainable to the various stakeholder groups.

Wherever possible, content templates defined and reviewed by standards bodies were referenced, and appropriate constraints for the B.C. context applied.

The content of the standard may require post-production edits, additions and/or maintenance to address issues identified by technical validation. Additional adjustments may be required over time to reflect requirements in B.C. or to align with emerging pan-Canadian standards developments.

Download

Download the B.C. Health Information Standards for Date and Time (PDF, 556 KB)

Last updated: June 2026