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HL7 Component Table - DTM - date/time

Seq#	Description	Data Type	Usage	Vocabulary	Length	C.LEN	Flags
DTM
1	Date/Time				[4..24]	8

One exception to this rule would be a clinical system that processed patient data collected in a clinic and a nearby hospital that happens to be in a different time zone. Such applications may choose to convert the data to a common representation. Similar concerns apply to the transitions to and from daylight saving time. HL7 supports such requirements by requiring that the time zone information be present when the information is sent. It does not, however, specify which of the treatments discussed here will be applied by the receiving system.

The DTM data type does not follow the normal truncation pattern, and the truncation character is never valid in the DTM data type. Instead, the truncation behavior is based on the semantics of dates and times.

Unless otherwise specified in the context where the DTM type is used, the DTM type may be truncated to a day. When a DTM is truncated, the truncated form SHALL still be a valid DTM type. Systems should always be able to persist full date / time information including the timezone. Refer to Chapter 2, section 2.5.5.2 "Truncation Pattern" for further information.