Code black = Personal threat, for example assault, violence, threatening behaviour.
Medical emergency (Code blue) Bomb threat (Code purple) Infrastructure and other internal emergencies (Code yellow) Personal threat (Code black) External emergency (Code brown)
Code Black calls are made by staff who believe that their safety, or that of the patient and/or other people, is at risk. The threatening behaviour can be exhibited by a patient or by other person(s). > The Code Black signal can be triggered through a duress alarm, emergency phone number, or other local mechanism.
The intention of a Code Black response is to ensure specialised assistance is available to prevent or minimise injury or other harm to staff, patients and visitors at all times. A code black response team will assist in containing the incident until external assistance arrives or they are able to resolve the incident.
A Code Grey is an organisation-level response to actual or potential violent, aggressive, abusive or threatening behaviour, exhibited by patients or visitors, towards others or themselves, which creates a risk to health and safety.
Code Black - Personal threat by a member of the public. Code Grey - Personal threat by a patient. Code Blue - Medical emergency. Code Yellow - Internal emergency.
Code Black is defined as any incident where staff feel that there is a threat of physical harm or violence to themselves, other staff, patients and/or visitors. This can include assaults, verbal aggression threatening harm and physical violence, armed hold up and robbery.
Violent Threatening Confrontation or Threat of Suicide for specific procedures of these situations. Comply with the offender's instructions. Do no more.
Code Pink: infant abduction, pediatric emergency and/or obstetrical emergency.
Code Green seems to be the most wavering code, but overall, it indicates the hospital is activating an emergency operations plan. Some hospitals use it to alert the arrival of patients from a mass casualty event while others use it to denote a missing high-risk patient.
A Code Brown is a nationally recognised emergency alert usually reserved for transport accidents, chemical spills, natural disasters and mass casualty events. It aims to ease the burden on health services by streamlining emergency management systems when there is an influx of patients over a short period of time.
Code Purple is activated if a bomb threat is received, or a suspect object or suspect mail item is detected.
Contact authorities as soon as possible, and active the Code Black. Depending on your facility and the care-level required of your patients, you may need to begin evacuation procedures. Unlike Code Silver, do not shelter in place. Begin evacuating the facility, starting with a reverse-triage protocol.
Code orange is when evacuation is required. Always follow evacuation procedures.
Patient numbers are recorded on a colour-coded graph – below capacity is orange, above capacity is red, and over 125% of capacity is white – or 66 patients in a department designed for 53.
In many hospitals in New Zealand, and Australia, “code blue” means that a patient is undergoing a medical emergency in the form of cardiac arrest or respiratory arrest, whereas “code red” signifies that a fire has sprung out.
Violence and threatening behaviour occur regularly in our Emergency Departments with as many as 10 Code Black activations per day, which are often a result of threatening, intimidating or violent behaviour directed towards staff.
Black codes were restrictive laws designed to limit the freedom of African Americans and ensure their availability as a cheap labor force after slavery was abolished during the Civil War.
Code black: While there is no formal definition for a "Code," doctors often use the term as slang to refer to a patient in cardiopulmonary arrest , requiring a team of providers (sometimes called a "code team") to rush to the specific location and begin immediate resuscitative efforts.
During the course of the series, 47 episodes of Code Black aired over three seasons.