Code Red/Code Blue/Code whatever....what do you have/what are they for?

[HappyNurse2005]

Seeing the thread about Code Pink's for rude docs, and others mentioning Code Pink meaning peds cardiac arrest, made me think about the diff Codes we have.

Different Codes:

Code Blue-adult cardiac or resp arrest

Code Kinder -peds cardiac/resp arrest

Code Secure -violent/aggressive pt/family-need security asap

Code Red -fire

Code Lindbergh -abducted infant/child

Types of "alerts":

trauma alert -a trauma coming in (we are a level 1 trauma center)

gold alert -multi system unstable trauma

heart alert -someone comes in who may need the cath lab asap

There are others for bomb threat, natural disaster, etc. Those are the ones we actually hear occasionally.

[Diploma'82]

I worked at a hospital that had a code gold for security (of course we had no security guards). Have you ever tried to say code gold when you are hyped up? I told the operator if she ever got a call saying cold gode that it was actually a code gold...man that was difficult to even write!

Where I work now a code blue is code 70 and a code pink (abduction) is code stork followed by a # for the age of the child.

[Escape5]

I work in a Level I Trauma Center/ER. Code Blue and Code Yellow refer specifically to trauma. It confuses some people, esp. new grads, when a CPR in progress or a patient codes in a room, they will call it a Code Blue...we just call it "pt. coding" or "cpr" in room X. The rest of the hospital, it's an MSET.

Here's ours:

MSET - Cardiac Arrest (not sure exactly what is stands for...)

Rapid Response - Not an MSET but unstable pt. who needs add'l attention emergently.

Anesthesia STAT (usually when someone has difficult airway and cannot be intubated)

Code Blue - Unstable Trauma/Severe MOI coming in

Code Yellow - Stable trauma coming in

Code White - Trauma w/ CPR in progress (not overheaded b/c they gen. do not make it.)

Code Vascular - Dissecting AAA coming in

Code Purple - Unit on lockdown (no visitors allowed, gen. r/t gang related trauma)

Dr. Red - Fire (when it's over, "Dr. Red return to your office." Pt.'s have figured it out).

Code Walker - Pt. eloped. Followed by description of pt.

Code Pink - Infant abduction

There's a couple more like Orange, Black, Brown, Green, all referring to some sort of disaster, bomb, decon, etc. but I can't remember them and thankfully have yet to hear those ones called.

Also, I wish we could call a code when our ER was filed to capacity. It would probably be a daily occurrance. We sometimes are able to go on Re-Route (if allowed by pt. condition, ambulances are directed toward neighboring ERs.) However, usually when we go on re-route, the other ERs will go on it soon afterwards and when everyone is on re-route, it all kind of becomes null...they gotta go somewhere!

[uscstu4lfe]

they abuse code pinks at our hospital. all the damn time, "code pink" is called over the PA. code pink, code pink, code pink. And then 2 minutes later... "cancel code pink".

no one cares that they're even called anymore, and they're ignored. one day a baby is actually going to be kidnapped and no one will take the appropriate initial action because we're so immuned to these codes.

[teeniebert, LPN]

I've had clinicals at a few places now, let's see what I can remember...

Fire is Code Red one place, Plan F another place

Code 7 means unstable individual, Code 7W is code 7 with a weapon or hostage

Cardiac arrest is Code 333 one place, another has rapid response team on pagers so it's not overhead

Plan ABC is a child abduction

Plan BEAR is a bomb threat

Code Black is a tornado warning

I need to review my safety info again; most of the ones I remember are not for the facility I'm in now! Whoops!