Code management
Hidayat Ullah Khan
MHPE,MSN. MPH, CHPE, IPC, BSN, DCHN, and RN
Khyber Medical University
Most hospitals rely on a
standardized coding system to
What Is a communicate an emergency. These
Hospital codes are not limited to medical
events.
Emergency Using hospital codes allows staff to
Code? quickly communicate the status of a
situation with minimal words.
Code Blue
Code Red
Types of Code white or orange
codes Code yellow
The term "code blue" is a
hospital emergency code used to
describe the critical status of a
patient. Hospital staff may call a
code blue if a patient goes into
Code Blue cardiac arrest, has respiratory
issues, or experiences any other
medical emergency. Hospitals
typically have rapid response teams
ready to go when they get notified
about a code blue.
Code blue typically lets hospital staff know a patient requires resuscitation
because of a medical emergency. Some places may break the code blue call
down into sub-categories like:
Code Blue — Adult medical emergency that doesn’t allow movement of the
Code Blue
patient.
Code Blue Pediatric — Medical emergency in a child that doesn’t allow
movement of the patient.
Code Blue Neonate — Medical emergency in an infant that doesn’t allow
movement of the patient.
Fire or Smoke. A hospital may
identify situations where there is
smoke, the smell of smoke, or a fire
Code Red sighting as a code red. The code can
also be used to indicate the sound
of a fire or smoke alarm.
Missing Child. Hospitals may call a
code white or orange to let staff
Code White know that there is a missing infant
or child. It’s typically used to prompt
or Orange staff into monitoring all exits and
doors.
Bomb Threat. If someone calls in a
bomb threat or issues one in person,
staff may call for a code yellow or
other color code indicator. It puts
Code yellow everyone in the hospital on alert to
look for suspicious items that may
have appeared over the past few
hours.