The weather has been changing a lot recently, and my little one unfortunately caught a cold and a fever. Yesterday afternoon, his fever seemed a bit high, so to be safe, I took him to the nearby public hospital, the Centro de Salud. While getting his temperature taken there, something happened that left me quite puzzled. I wanted to post about it to discuss with everyone and see if you’ve had similar experiences with Spanish thermometers.
Before we left, I had used my own Braun ear thermometer to check his temperature several times at home, and it was consistently around 38.8°C. That’s quite high, which is why I rushed to the hospital. When we got there, the nurse at the triage desk took out a forehead thermometer—the kind that you point at the forehead for a ‘beep’—and guess what the reading was? 37.5°C! I was shocked. I told the nurse that wasn’t the reading I got at home; it was much higher. The nurse was very calm and said their instruments were calibrated and accurate, then told us to go to the waiting room to see the doctor.
After waiting for almost an hour, we saw the doctor. He used another ear thermometer on my child, and this time it showed 38.2°C. Although higher than the nurse’s reading, it was still 0.6°C lower than what my thermometer at home showed. The doctor took a look and said it wasn’t a big deal, just a low-to-moderate fever. He prescribed some paracetamol and told us to go home and monitor the situation. Even though the outcome was pretty much the same, I couldn’t stop wondering: are the hospital’s thermometers accurate at all? How can different people get such different readings in the same place? Is there some special ‘magic’ to Spanish thermometers?
Comparison of the Different Temperature Readings
To make it clearer, I’ve put the results into a table so you can see the discrepancy with these Spanish thermometers.
| Location | Device Used | Reading |
|---|
| At Home | Braun Ear Thermometer | 38.8 |
| Hospital Triage Desk | Forehead Thermometer | 37.5 |
| Doctor’s Office | Hospital’s Ear Thermometer | 38.2 |
Honestly, this experience has made me a little skeptical about the equipment in Spanish hospitals. I know that forehead thermometers are more affected by the environment, and perhaps for a temperature check at a Spanish hospital, the forehead temperature is lower right after coming in from outside, but the difference was just too big. Or does my own ear thermometer need to be calibrated? I’ve been using it for several years and it has always seemed accurate. I’m curious if anyone else has had a similar experience when visiting a doctor in Spain. Which do you think is more reliable, the hospital’s thermometer or your own? Please share your experiences!
