If a hospital calls for a code blue.....

[phorsenuf]

Then about a minute later cancels it, why?

 

[dismichelle]

We realize the person is actually a DNR (no code), or once I had an older teen who I was giving a new medication to.

She appeared to stop breathing for a while. We believe she was just holding her breath.

 

[phorsenuf]

I was at the VA today picking up some meds and some guy just dropped. They got a gurney and headed to the ER and called for a code blue, then canceled it. We were hoping he hadn't died.

 

[a1tinkfans]

 

[WL Fan]

Sometimes people (patients or visitors) accidentally hit the code button thinking they're hitting their call light. It actually happens way more often than an actual code. Makes everyone's heart skip a few beats, too!

 

[jfoofj]

It actually happens a lot. Either the patient is DNR or seemed to be unresponsive but then, when the lights turn on and the chaos starts, they wake up and say "what the heck?".


The hospital I work at uses code beepers... we have a core team of people from each discipline (Drs, nurses, respiratory, plebotomy, etc) that respond to all codes. The only time codes are announced overhead is if the beepers are down, or a Code Red (fire) or Code Pink (missing child).

 

[daughter_of_amid_chaos]

The local hospital here has started using Code 90 instead of Code Blue.

I wondered if it was so everyone in the hospital didn't know what was going on.

 

[tvguy]

Equipment can fail too, giving a false alarm.

I work at a TV station, and when they first started testing the digital transmitters (the ones that replaced the analog ones last year) way back in 1999, they discovered the TV signal interfered with the telemetry they use on the heart monitors in hospitals. Yep, we'd turn the transmitter on, and every heart monitor in the hospital would signal that the patient attached to it had no pulse, all at once. Talk about chaos.
Administrator of the hosptial went through the roof, angry with us....until the FCC inspector who was monitoring our testing pointed out that it was the hospital who was in the wrong, their heart monitors were all using OUR assigned TV frequency not one approved for hospital heart monitors. The hosptial got fined by the FCC and had to spend a big chunk of money replacing all their heart monitors.

 

[jfoofj]

The local hospital here has started using Code 90 instead of Code Blue.

I wondered if it was so everyone in the hospital didn't know what was going on.

Yes... it is. Think of what would happen if people in the waiting room, cafeteria, or hallways heard "Code Blue room 212" and knew that it was their loved ones room. It also cuts down on onlookers, which does happen a lot too. Visitors and staff that do not need to be there. My friend worked at a hospital where they would say "Dr. Quick to room 213 stat". There was no Dr. Quick, the staff all knew what it meant though.

 

[momof5boys]

Those code blue buttons are touchy! I remember one time a nurse was stocking the triage room and when she opened an overhead cabinet she must have bumped the button( but she didn't know it!) All of a sudden I hear the code alarm and the operator announced "code blue ER triage!" I was thinking what the heck! The entire staff ran into triage along with the code team and there was the nurse sitting there reading a magazine, the look on her face was priceless. Needless to say I reset the button and called the operator to cancel it. It happens so often on the floors because the buttons are behind the curtains by the headboards, open the curtain too fast and you set it off, that I just walk fast instead of run for codes because 90% get cancelled!

 

[lsyorke]

Yes... it is. Think of what would happen if people in the waiting room, cafeteria, or hallways heard "Code Blue room 212" and knew that it was their loved ones room. It also cuts down on onlookers, which does happen a lot too. Visitors and staff that do not need to be there. My friend worked at a hospital where they would say "Dr. Quick to room 213 stat". There was no Dr. Quick, the staff all knew what it meant though.

I think it's more important to get the team to the patient quickly, than to worry about onlookers.

Darn code buttons...triggered all the time by accident.

 

[laurie31]

We are required to check ours; the oncoming shift calls the operator and informs them that they are checking the button. However, every once in awhile, they either forget to call, or someone else SEES the person calling, and pulls the button to check it, not realizing they haven't had a chance to tell the operator yet, and the operator then calls the code. Then a few minutes later, they will announce that it's cancelled.

There are certain areas that don't call codes (ICUs, ER, etc) because the point is to get a physician there and those areas HAVE MDs all the time so when I hear the code to one of those places, I expect to hear it cancelled shortly.

We also don't call it code blue because too many people know what that means.

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

Yes... it is. Think of what would happen if people in the waiting room, cafeteria, or hallways heard "Code Blue room 212" and knew that it was their loved ones room.

Our hospital still uses code blue and I have seen familys relize its a relitive and go to peices in the cafertia. Then again all our codes are posted on various signs where eveyone sees them.

 

[Xcited4Disney]

At our hospital we do not have buttons. Codes are referred to as "Code 3". It is always called overhead and the code team is simultaneously paged. It is cancelled if the patient is DNR or if once there, the patient does have a pulse.

 

[scottishduffy]

Lest see, in just the past 2 weeks this has happened because.

** A patient in cath lab threw up. The staff freaked out when he barfed and called a code. Patient was awake and alert and rather surprised to see us.

*** Patient has a seizure, but is still alive and with a pulse. Comes around shortly therafter and is once again impressed by the crowd.

*** Elderly people which sleep VERY soundly. Nurse too freaked out to check for breathing after calling the patients name and calls a code. Patient wakes up and once again is highly impressed by the hospital SWAT team.

*** Hypoglycemic patient. Gave some dextrose IV and they were just peachy. Again, patient comes around and is somewhat in awe to see us all there and thanks us for the effort.

** A patient is a DNR or the family decides to call off a code.

** Pt had a bradycardiac epidose (heart rate dipped way down) for several seconds. Within a minute the heart rate is back up.... way up.... since 15 people showed up with intubation equipment and a defibrillator.


By the way, I get to be part of the code team. So any time that pager goes off i get to run. Better to be safe and call us though.

 

[dis-happy]

They called the crash cart on me once; it was rather exciting. I was down in the hospital basement having a CT scan when I began having a strong reaction to the IV contrast. Took me a while to get the attention of the two people in the booth who were talking, but once they realized the problem everyone arrived quite quickly! Happily I lived to tell the tale......raising a toast to code teams.

 

[MomRN]

I'm still a relatively new nurse, and I work on a unit that is lower acuity, so I don't have a lot of experience with codes. The one experience I do have was when another newer nurse came out screaming "Call a code! Call a code!" I called it in while other more experienced nurses from the floor grab the crash cart and go running. Turned out the patient was sleeping soundly. The other experience was a pt going home on hospice the next day. Originally she didn't want to be a DNR, changed her mind, but the proper papers were never filled out. So, the code was called and lasted a few minutes until the next of kin and the doctor were called for the DNR order.

Better safe than sorry though.

(BTW: our hospital just went from Dr Emory House to Code Blue)

 

[Mandychelle79]

We call a "CAT" which means Cardiac Action Team instead of code blue. We also have a rapid response team ( Condition R Phase 1 or 2) that we can call if someone just isnt right. Real low pulse, bp, passing out. A condition R phase 2 is actually a CAT, but since half the people show up for a phase 1, we only have to call phase 2 to get the rest. If we call a CAT, onto of it we end up with double teams.

The one we get canceled a lot is our code yellow ( violent patient with someone in immanent danger) We all wear code buttons on the psych units and they do get bumped a lot.

 

[laurie31]

Interesting - we use Code Orange for that (a security emergency with someone in danger). Code Yellow for us is a disaster. (anything that would produce mass casulties - in actuality it's usually a bus wreck, although we have Code Yellow drills every quarter and the practice scenarios are always over the top horrible. I guess they figure we can handle reality if we can handle those).

Code Purple is a psych patient escaping, and Code Pink is an abduction.

We started a rapid response team about 18 months ago and it has really cut down drastically on the number of codes, (code blue, I mean) since you can call that team to intervene BEFORE things deteriorate into a full-blown code.

We also have another team which responds to medical emergencies in non-patients. That happens more than you would think. More than I thought, anyway.

 

[mom2kazkids]

There are three floors at our hospital that it is very commom for a code 4 to be called, then have it cancelled a short time later. The code call buttons have been put in a very poor location on those floors, and it is very common for housekeeping, or resp therapy to set them off. I has come to a point that when codes are called on those floors we want to wait a couple minutes before going, because they are more than likely to cancel the code when we are in the stairwell on the way to the code.


I have actually mistakenly set off the code button in my unit not once, twice, but three times in a shift. All of the times, I was attempting to move a suction head, and leaned on the wrong spot on our ICU tower. Just slightly embarrassing.