Code Blue Announcement - Page 3

Register Today!
  1. Jul 4, '12 by
    I can see how, in larger facilities, overhead pages would be disruptive. In our smaller, 120 bed facility, we *need* the overhead page. If I hear a code blue called overhead, I know that I can't call the ED, ICU, or nursing supervisor to assist with a particularly hard stick...the extra staff are all in the code. I'm not going to call the ICU charge nurse to ask a non-urgent question, and I'm not going to call the nursing supervisor to ask him to go down to central supply and get me SCDs for my new admit.

    My unit is old, designed as a long hall, with rooms on each side of the hallway, and the nurses station at the very end. Frankly, I've heard many a code blue called on our unit that, if we had a pager only system, I wouldn't have known about for several minutes. Now that I'm always in charge, I'm often the one who calls the operator or hits the code button, because as we all know, many times someone is circling the drain prior to actually coding and I'm usually in there assessing the situation already. But I appreciate that all my staff immediately knows what's going on, and can mobilize accordingly, covering pts, bringing the crash cart, moving things out of the way, bringing in a COW. It's very helpful.
  2. Jul 4, '12 by
    Quote from dudette10
    HIPAA violation and family anxiety? Like families don't know the room number of their own family members? Room numbers overhead without a name are PHI? What a load of hogwash...

    . . .

    The "let's be quiet about this" mentality is not a patient safety concern. It sounds like its a patient satisfaction concern...don't want anyone to know that there are REALLY SICK PEOPLE in this hospital!
    Thank you. My point exactly.

    Quote from Been there,done that
    Do you know for sure, what the change is driven by?
    From what they said in the staff meeting was families expressing anxiety with thinking it might be their family member (I guess if they didn't hear the room number?) and a HIPPA thing.

    Quote from Altra
    It works just fine - there is a "test page" that goes out once or twice daily to check pagers & the system itself. Zero issues with lack of response due to pager failure or failure to respond to the pager.
    Yeah the plan is now a twice daily pager test. But my concern is this. My unit is split in to a west side and east side (each with 21 or 24 beds). Now, lets say there is a code on the east side, and very experienced RN is on the west side. Overhead, they hear it, can rush to the room, MUCH FASTER than someone responding to a pager and from a different floor. Now with this experienced person in the room if there is chaos or things not happening as quickly as they should, they can take change and get the pads on and get the rhythm analysis going to possibly shock.

    Now, remove the overhead paging. Experienced RN on west side has NO CLUE there is a code and the experienced person the patient and other RNs need is trying to get up there asap from another floor.

    I remember reading a study about the outcome differences between shocking someone in VT/VF within 2 minutes being DRASTICALLY improved over even waiting 5 minutes. I just think if someone with the experience needed in this situation is now coming by pager from another floor, then hitting the 2 minute window is next to impossible.

    About 1/2 down they have a table with similar numbers to the article I found... (still looking for it right now.. ok well can't find it now, I'll try again later). Here's this one though:
    The Problem of Sudden Cardiac Arrest
    Last edit by janfrn on Jul 4, '12 : Reason: enabled multiple quote reply
  3. Asst. Admin
    Jul 4, '12 by
    Our hospital doesn't have Code Blue buttons; all Code, MET and RRT calls go through the switchboard which pages overhead with the unit number. The Code Team carries pagers and we have a 0900 hours test page daily. MET calls also go overhead, but peds rapid response team calls do not... for those "anxiety and privacy" reasons. Problems with this system? Our pagers are ancient. They don't always work despite fresh batteries. So they got us some Companion phones. BUT... they don't work anywhere but on the 3rd floor and the peds inpatient units are on the 4th and 5th floors. The cafeteria, the cath lab, the ORs, the radiology department and all those other places the Code nurse might go in the course of the shift aren't on the 3rd floor either. Peds RRT calls go to the Code Team pagers, but the Code Team doesn't respond to them, the transport nurse does. If the RRT call then devolves into a code, the Code Team responds and the transport nurse returns to PICU... often passing the Code Team in the hall. The Code Team nurses are responsible for covering breaks in the PICU - usually in an isolation room. Hospital policy states isolated peds patients must have a nurse in the room while in PICU. So if the person assigned to the room doesn't hear the code paged and doesn't return to the room, time is lost while someone else comes to cover. It's a bit of a challenge sometimes.
  4. Jul 4, '12 by
    At my old hospital, a code blue was called overhead with the room number "scrambled" in such away that only staff (supposedly) knew what it was. At my new facility, codes are called with unit only, and staff are directed upon arrival. It seems that both ways require the same response time, in my experience.
  5. Jul 5, '12 by
    Quote from BluegrassRN
    I can see how, in larger facilities, overhead pages would be disruptive. In our smaller, 120 bed facility, we *need* the overhead page. If I hear a code blue called overhead, I know that I can't call the ED, ICU, or nursing supervisor to assist with a particularly hard stick...the extra staff are all in the code. I'm not going to call the ICU charge nurse to ask a non-urgent question, and I'm not going to call the nursing supervisor to ask him to go down to central supply and get me SCDs for my new admit.
    Excellent point, and one I forgot when writing my own post. Everyone hearing "code blue" also meant we knew who NOT to call for the next half hour to an hour.
  6. Jul 7, '12 by
    At my hospital, if we press the duress button on the wall a different beep sounds to the normal call bell beep and on the signs throughout the unit it flashes in red the room number and the word duress ie "BED 22 DURESS". That means, everyone on the unit attend NOW. When a MET call (medical emergency team) is called ie if someone has crashed, the assigned people in ICU get a page to their pager to come down to the unit. The pager also makes a different noise so they look at it straight away. To get the MET page out, we dial 444 (from any phone, even the one beside the patients bed) and state unit, bed number or area, and what has occurred.
    I think it would be ridiculous to not have the unit duress beep. With our current system we respond very quickly if on the unit and someone brings the crash cart, and when the ICU team/MET comes down it never takes over 6 minutes for them to arrive.
  7. Jul 7, '12 by
    Back in the dinosaur days, I remember a lot of concern when a code would be announced over the pager where-ever (6th floor, 3 west, ICU, etc). Nose-y visitors from all over the house would flock to the area for a look-see, neighboring pts would become upset (there is some bonding concern among pts on a unit), family members who were out of the area briefly would return PANIC-stricken, etc. Lots of staff would show up also. It was a very real public 'spectator sport' needing crowd control.

    Today's electronic tech toys seem to be the going thing but not without functional & operator issues. I guess there's no win-win anywhere.
  8. Jul 7, '12 by
    This is an issue that greatly bothers me. As many people have already stated, overhead code announcements have allowed us to help neighboring units with their codes, know which units not to bother with requests/questions that can wait, and helps get the information to all available people ASAP, 100% of the time. I remember the time I was in a utility room far from my patients, heard an overhead announcement of a code blue which happened to be right next to me, and was the first RN to respond. Had the system been instead individual pages, I would NOT have gotten informed, and the code would have been delayed. Those additional hands and additional seconds of care are so important.

    I worry how the ever increasing mentality of hotel/fluff/appearances impedes the care of our patients - this is a prime example and it honestly sickens me. A patient's life is more important than anything else.

    I wonder, for those who use this type of individual pager system, does this mean the other codes such as for violent persons are not done overhead either?
  9. Jul 8, '12 by
    Well getting people to respond to a code is a challange in itself sometimes. I hate to imagine what it would be like if our facility used pagers. No thanks.
  10. Jul 16, '12 by
    My old facility called Code Blue overhead followed by a scrambled four-digit number, which everyone knew how to decipher as unit and room. I thought it worked pretty well. New facility calls Code Blue overhead with unit only, and select personnel have pagers that give more detail. That seems pretty efficient too.