Anyone who has ever seen a medical show knows what a “code blue” is. For those not in the know, it’s a medical facility’s emergency code that a patient needs to be resuscitated. That isn’t the only color code, but it’s one of only a few health care workers know off the top of their heads, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Georgia.
“Health care facilities have traditionally relied upon code-based notifications to quickly and efficiently alert employees to ongoing emergencies within or affecting the facility,” co-author Morgan Taylor, a doctoral student in the College of Public Health, told UGA Today.
Because there is no universal standard for these codes, they can differ from one facility to another. For their study, the UGA team surveyed 304 clinical and nonclinical employees at five Georgia health care facilities on 14 emergency codes at their respective workplaces.
