Code Red in a Hospital Means Immediate Action

Staff at hospitals and other medical institutions must be constantly prepared for unexpected emergencies, as staff are responsible for patient safety while ensuring the smooth running of general operations. The term ‘code’ is used for such emergencies, which were standardized by suggestion of the Hospital Association of Southern Carolina (HASC) after an active shooter killed three people due to the wrong alert being sent out. To prevent another tragedy like this, The Hospital Association of South Carolina advised the use of a uniform code system to aid in quick and accurate communication in an emergency event.  

Some hospitals prefer the use of plain language alerts to ensure clearer understanding, but many rely on the hospital color code system as laid out by the HASC to quickly communicate the many possible threats to the safety of patients and staff--not just in the event of a medical emergency, but in other such cases as an active shooter (code silver), an infant abduction (code amber), bomb threat (code black), a combative person (code white), an infant cardiac event (code pink), a cardiac arrest (code blue), or, in this case, a fire somewhere in the facility (code red ). In emergencies like these, every second counts.  

Be they color codes or plain language alerts, a uniform code system is preferred, as it is crucial that staff send out accurate hospital emergency codes to all necessary personnel and respond urgently, especially if a full evacuation of the facility is required. So, how can a hospital avoid chaos and, if necessary, ensure an organized evacuation in the event of a code red alert?  

This is where SimplyCast comes in. 

With our code red use case, you can streamline your hospital’s fire response with ease, all through a centralized dashboard. Make the most of our powerful alerts, advanced response-based tracking, and responsive surveys to give your staff the information they need to act as soon as the fire starts.  

Improve Your Code Red Response

Step 1: Keep a Staff Database

Maintaining a staff database with up-to-date contact information and keeping it connected to your emergency tools is a great way to stay ahead of the game. This data can be easily collected via an online form or integrated from a previous list. This registry helps keep all important information in one place and readily available. Should a color code emergency such as a code red occur, you will be able to alert your staff with the press of a button, allowing them to act immediately. 

Step 2: Prepare Message Templates

Ensure your alerts go out quickly by preparing your message templates ahead of time. For example, you might choose to include alerts for the location of the fire, whether an evacuation is necessary, where assembly points are, where to assemble instead if usual routes are blocked or unsafe, and locations that are off-limits or should be sealed to protect patients and equipment. SimplyCast’s platform allows you to construct these alerts at your convenience, ensuring each will be consistent and reliable when it counts.  

Step 3: Alert Your Staff

So, how does it work? In three easy steps: 

• When a fire is found, your administration staff send out the alerts you prepared with the click of a button. 

• Hospital staff receive the alert and can immediately begin to evacuate (or prepare to evacuate) the required area(s). During this process, our live survey tool allows them to send status updates and head counts for the administrators monitoring the updates to check against records. Fast and consistent communication between staff means they can pivot and advance the scope of the evacuation in real time. The live survey tool can also be used to contact other hospitals to find accommodations for any critical patients who need to be moved. 

• Once it has been confirmed that the fire has been extinguished, hospital administrators can send another notification to alert all staff that the situation has been resolved. If critical patients were moved to other hospitals during the evacuation, an alert can also be sent to those hospitals to say that it is safe for the patients to return, or to request more permanent transfers for patients whose ward was damaged.  

Step 4: Review Your Reports

After the code red has been resolved, our central dashboard will generate reports that you can use to analyze vulnerabilities in your hospital staff’s response, allowing you to further streamline your reaction times, strengthen your procedures, and face your next emergency with confidence. 

Why SimplyCast?

The SimplyCast platform is a no-code platform that is fully customizable and can be tweaked or altered to meet the exact needs of every hospital or medical facility. 

SimplyCast is an ISO 27001:2013-certified company with data centers in the USA and Canada. Our platform can send over 100,000 fully encrypted messages every hour and allows for over 10,000 concurrent sessions. We can also acquire additional gateways and servers if you need them.   

Most importantly, we have a 99.5 percent minimum uptime, and we can assure you that your confidential data is safe on our secure server. With our solution, you can have peace of mind.    

Interested in Improving Your Code Red Response?

Our experts are ready to give you a one-on-one demo to explain how this solution works.   

Simply request a demo by clicking the button below and let us show you how our solution can help you manage your code red response more efficiently. If you're interested in our other color code system use cases and how else our platform can apply to your emergency, check out how we can help you respond to other hospital emergency codes such as a code blue  (cardiac arrest), code silver (active shooter), code amber (infant abduction), code pink (infant cardiac event), or a code white situation where your hospital or healthcare facility is faced with a combative person.   

Updated June 2024