Codes?

[nmd2b]

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Hi All,

I am curious about what this medical lingo means...

Code Blue
Code Yellow
Code Red...

Anymore categories? What does it mean? When is it used?

 

[nuclearrabbit77]

they have more color codes than a crayola box.

 

[VentdependenT]

I've been around for many a code brown.

 

[Darth Vader]

Codes vary from hospital to hospital, but code blue is usually heart attack, code red is usually fire, and I don't know what code yellow is. Some hospitals use things like "alert team report to this floor" instead of code blue since so many people know what that means already, and I've been in another hospital that overhead pages "Dr. Rose on the 10th floor" for fire on the 10th floor. I imagine that they probably have to change that code around everytime they hire a Dr. Rose, or else that could lead to some confusion.

 

[Neuronix]

All I know is the following...

STAY AWAY FROM A CODE BROWN!

That is all you need to know as well.
PS: Code yellow means baby abduction at the hospital where I used to work. They only ever drilled that one, as it never actually happened. I'm sure this is a non-standard thing though.

 

[12R34Y]

Never heard of "heart attack" as a code blue before....you'd be calling code blues a lot in a big hospital if it were called for every possible AMI.

Code blue= cardiac arrest whether it is a kid, adult, from a AMI, sepsis......you name it... If you don't have a pulse it is a code blue.


later

 

[beanbean]

The hospital where I worked in high school and later on as a clinical engineer had the following emergency codes:

Cardiac Arrest: Dr. Rush Pace !

Fire: Dr. Pyro !!!

Security for EDP/violent patient: Dr. Beanie !!!!

Fortunately they changed to more alerts back in the early '90s. I still miss hearing Dr. Beanie called!

 

[uwcoxswain]

Code blue is generally pulmonary arrest, not necessarily cardiac arrest. Ofcourse, if you don't do anything about it cardiac arrest is right around the corner...

A few of the basic colors are the same at virtually every hospital. Beyond that they can vary.

 

[carrigallen]

Code Green means evacuate the hospital immediately.

 

[unk_fxn]

"Code Yellow" is used by many hospitals in the mid atlantic area to designate an incoming major trauma case with unstable vital signs. This is typically followed by the means of arrival (air, ground) and the ETA.

This is distinguished from the "Trauma Alert" announcement which means the trauma team should respond but there is no indication of unstable vital signs at time of notification (what some would call "trauma by mechanism" or Priority 2)

 

[LaCirujana]

My current hospital uses weird codes, so I won't even go into those (since no one else will use them). The other hospitals I've worked at used the same ones:

Code Blue: cardiac/respiratory arrest
Code Red: fire
Code Pink: infant abduction
Code Yellow: major disaster (lots of trauma casualties expected)
Code Green: environmental (hazmat-type casualties expected)

 

[citygirl]

Our local hospital pages "Dr. Strong" if they have someone violent and need assistance, ie: someone on PCP in the ER.

 

[zambezi]

At my hospital:
Code Blue: Cardiac/Pulmonary arrest
Code Purple: Pedi arrest (doesn't usually get called overhead)
Code Pink: Infant Abduction
Code Red: Fire-Can't miss this one due to loud alarms/flashing lights and doors closing.
Code Yellow: Think this one is hazardous substance spill/contamination stuff.
Code Black: Bomb threat (or probably any other threat)
Code Green: Physical assistance needed asap...(usually for psych patients, upset and unruly family members, or a variety or ER patients-psych, ETOH, substance abuse, etc)

All of our codes are printed on the back of our name badges.
Most common: Blue, Green, Red, and Pink "for practice"

 

[Smurfette]

Blue Cart--Cardiac/Pulm Arrest
Code Red--fire
Code Yellow--bomb threat
Code Pink--child abduction
Strong Team--violent/crazy patient needs subduing
Medical Response Team--urgent medical attention needed

I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones I've heard and figured out.

 

[AJM]

At one hospital I rotate to, a cardiopulmonary arrest is Code Blue. At the other main hospital we rotate to, the same thing is a Code 66. I was VERY confused the first time I heard Code 66 announced -- I was on the code team and didn't even know that was something I was supposed to go to!

My favorite code name that we have is a Code Zebra. It's to mobilize the hospital for a major disaster such as an earthquake, a passenger train crash, or a terrorist attack, where there would be a ton of traumas coming in.

 

[Soleil9]

At one hospital I worked at, the code for fire was "green grass, floor 2" It was spoken by a very calm female recording, that would repeat every thirty seconds or so. It sounded kind of surreal.

At another hospital I ws at visiting my sick aunt, there was actually a real fire (I saw some security workers rushing with fire extinguishers) They just had a regular fire alarm! Much less pleasant than the calm green grass lady.

Our code for needing security assistance with a patient was "Code Man" all males in the area were supposed to report to the disturbance.

 

[Whisker Barrel Cortex]

Smurfette,

I think we're at the same hospital since we have the exact same codes. As a preliminary medicine intern last year I learned the hard way that "medical response team" was not an cardiac arrest and that doctors did not show up to these, just designated nurses (some ER nurse, and others). On call my first night at 3am there was a medical response team code and I ran to the entrance of the hospital only to learn I wasn't needed. Luckily I was already awake.

We had a Code Yellow, bomb alert a couple of weeks ago. It was cleared after a couple of hours but part of the hospital was shut down.