Talk:Hospital emergency codes

Code Purple
Can someone confirm/refute that at the George Washington University Hospital that a 'Code Purple' means that a VIP is arriving at the hospital? In certain situations, I understand that parts of the hospital are locked down so that most persons can not have access to the floor where the VIP is. (In this case, purple is chosen to represent the color of royalty) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.100.79.88 (talk) 09:54, 22 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Why should this matter? If every hospital potentially has its own color coding system, then Wikipedia cannot and should not attempt to cover every code from every hospital— that isn't its purpose, and was never supposed to be the purpose here.  If "code purple" really is a thing, then it should have its own article; if it is not, then confirming/ refuting it on the talk page is pointless.  KDS4444 (talk) 23:06, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

2006
http://tech.unfranchise.com CODE 911 INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL CAN ALSO DENOTE DISATERS. LEVELS 1,2 AND 3 IS AT OUR HOSPITAL IN TUCSON.

The article claims that these codes are used "worldside" (presumably "worldwide" is intended) then under "Standardization" reveals that this actually refers to part of one US State (S California) and even then is not a standard ( the colour codes denote different events at different hostpitals and are not universal), though the external links section does at least mention another US State (Texas). This is not "worldwide" by any measure - do they differ in, say, Maine? The Netherlands? The UK (as far as I'm aware the UK has no equivalent)? How about, say, Cameroon or Japan? Tonywalton | Talk 12:32, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Read the line "the colour codes denote different events at different hostpitals and are not universal".
 * Australian usage is mention. Yes, it is US-centric, but that is due to availablity of information.
 * Duggy 1138 04:41, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Merging
I created this page as somewhere for some of the smaller Code pages (Yellow & Orange), I think, to merge to. However, I'm happy if Black & possibly Blue (Although Blue may deserve it's own page.) So MERGE Code Black into this page, or delete Code Black, because I think all the information is here. Duggy 1138 07:59, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Code Blue
Yeah, I think the Code Blue deserves its own page so it can be expanded. And corrected. 64.180.200.241 (talk)

Does anyone know what the code is for biohazard threat?
It must be an issue in hopsitals because of potential chemical spills, quarantine, and infectious agents accidents.


 * From side references in some of the lists used to create this page, I think (unless the hospital has a specific code) it'd come under "Internal Disaster", unless it's a chemical weapon threat, which may be treated as a "Bomb Threat". As with any of these, it varies from hospital to hospital.
 * Duggy 1138 06:46, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Its orange. I am pretty sure in every state but for sure it is in Washington, Oregon, and California and a few others.

www.wsha.org/files/82/Codeseducationslides.pp

Code Green
I remember reading in a hospital "new employee guide" that 'code green' meant the use of force--like a person using a weapon. I don't remember the exact wording, aside from the word "force." This was with a Baltimore, MD hospital called Kernan Hospital. 70.21.2.135 17:54, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Code Brown
On February 21, 2007, Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada issued a Code Brown for a potential spill. According to the wiki article, a Code Brown usually denotes external disaster, but I think hazardous spill should be added to that list.
 * It is also used in the Calgary Health Region for hazardous material spills.139.48.25.61 (talk) 20:13, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Its also used jokingly by nursing for a large messy stool that requires clean-up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.188.176.2 (talk) 13:18, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

Notes section
This is my first visit to this page. I noticed that some sentences have links to the pages' Notes section (ex. [1] ), but when I click on any of those links I go nowhere. I hardly went through the revision history, but it seems it has been like this for a while. Peter Tangney (talk) 01:30, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Citation Request for Critical Care Bypass in Ontario
Here are some links that I found which reference Critical Care Bypass (CCB) in Ontario. However, I could not find any direct information regarding it, most are updates to the CCB system.

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/2000/agendas/committees/cms/cms000113/it002.htm

http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/166/4/445

http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=17430&cat=322&page=2

http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/public/pub/ministry_reports/rdc_ccb.pdf

Medic48 (talk) 04:25, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Not Encyclopedic
All these codes are not really encyclopedic in the sense that every hospital/health org/care facilities uses their own standard code (with some exception) - It's impossible to list all the combinations nor do they really serve any real purposes.--Cahk (talk) 03:34, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

External link
The link to "Nurse Barb Clark code web-site" seems to be irrelevant -- can anyone find anything even remotely related to the topic at that url? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.188.249.248 (talk) 04:12, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Removed Material
Sorry, 30-40 codes for dozen Dfifferent hospitals 90% unrefed i'm sorry. Lets Limit examples to one hospital or Two or Three Major ones Weaponbb7 (talk) 00:34, 8 April 2010 (UTC)
 * What about codes that are standardised in some states or countries? 203.35.135.133 (talk) 02:55, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

This might be a good idea. However, removing two of the biggest teaching hospitals in the U.S. (Harvard Medical hospitals), where codes do actually conform to what is supposed to be a standard, is probably not the brightest idea.76.19.64.208 (talk) 04:17, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

Jumped the gun
I might have "Jumped the gun" with my edit, so I'm going to stand down. I will say this the lead is wrong  Mlpearc  MESSAGE  02:58, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Dubious claim
One section of this article claims, " 'Doctor Allcome to Ward 5' would indicate that all medical staff not presently occupied are needed (The Med, Memphis Tennessee and Abington Memorial Hospital, Abington, Pennsylvania)." I can find no sources online to support this claim (and the external link is simply the latter hospital's website). The problem is, an identical scenario is explained in Johnny Mnemonic, a fictional short story (and movie): the title character believes "Dr. Allcome" can restore his brain to normal, only to discover the name is a just a code word in a makeshift hospital. So, is this Wikipedia entry conflating art with reality, or can it be verified? &mdash; VoxLuna (talk) 05:41, 22 May 2011 (UTC)

Code lights?
What purpose do the lights that sit above the doorway of a room in a hospital (Or in some cases, a doctors office) have? I know they come in colors of Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Black and possibly more and have a switch with each button colored so you know which one is activated but are they used in conjunction with the emergency codes? So meaning if a patient was having a cardiac arrest, the blue button would be pressed to make the light outside light up in blue so the doctors know where the patient is at? Or are those lights used for something completely different. Jakob9999 (talk) 23:13, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

-Those are actually call lights. Take a look at Nurse call button for further information. --Qwertyu63 (talk) 06:48, 22 December 2016 (UTC)

The purpose of the article page is...
...The purpose of the article associated with this talk page is supposed to be an analysis of the history and use of hospital emergency codes— it was never meant to be a list of all codes used in all hospitals. Some codes like "code blue" and "code red" have become more or less standardized, but I get the sense that many others are not. But I can't tell from the article as it now stands because it isn't arranged to inform the reader about how the codes developed or which are more or less standardized. It isn't even organized by "code". It's organized by geography (at least, sometimes) which strikes me as a very poor way to cover this subject. And when "code red" is shown in the body of the article to indicate a fire in virtually all contexts, but the lead portion of the article indicates that "code red" means something altogether different and doesn't even mention fire, we have straightforward evidence of editors not reviewing the content of the article before making their own small addition to the piece, which creates the mess that this article now stands in. I'd try to fix some of this myself but I'd rather call a "code vermilion" and just walk away from it. If I could, I'd issue a "code sea foam green" and blow it up and start over, but that's against policy. KDS4444 (talk) 22:20, 28 February 2017 (UTC)
 * The article is mostly a random list of terminology used in some hospitals in some countries. There seems to be no standardisation at all, so what's the point? --Ef80 (talk) 00:05, 5 January 2018 (UTC)

Edit request
Please create an edit notice for the article, placing in it the template. The oldest version of this article uses the American word "color" throughout. Thank you--KDS4444 (talk) 17:19, 3 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Denied. Sorry, it does not. Clear use of British English - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hospital_emergency_codes&oldid=82990304 Ron h jones (Talk) 22:08, 4 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Actually, the first version of this article includes both the words "color" AND "colour", which is particularly strange... It looks like the person who first created the article is from Australia (based on his userboxes) which then perhaps means the article should be labeled for  (?).  In any case, it would be great if the article could get an editnotice one way or the other so that editors don't flip back and forth without guidance, yes?  KDS4444 (talk) 10:28, 19 March 2017 (UTC)

user:Ronhjones: It has been seven months now but no ongoing follow-up on this request. Can I have your thoughts on it, given what I have said above? Thanks. KDS4444 (talk) 23:39, 7 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Agreed - he's Australian. Template added Ron h jones (Talk) 00:37, 8 November 2017 (UTC)
 * It would certainly be odd to have the article in British English, given that the emergency codes described are not in general use in British hospitals. --Ef80 (talk) 11:45, 6 January 2018 (UTC)

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Move discussion
Requested move discussion of interest to editors watching this page: Talk:Code Blue. Montanabw (talk) 20:15, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Code Blue which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 20:19, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

Thanks For Reading this Article
I don't understqand the section ==Codes== at the end of this article. Is it supposed to be about a particular country or generic codes or what? Is there a light in hospitals that displays the codes? If so, an image of this would be useful. Who decides to call codes?

WP:HOS -- Talk to G Moore 00:41, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

Doctor codes
In the movie Johnny Mnemonic they use the code name "Doctor AllCome" which is explained to be an Emergency code for any available doctor to appear.

not sure if it's worth mentioning.

--Patbahn (talk) 19:57, 1 May 2021 (UTC)