SimplyCast: Smart Hospital
Use Case: Smart Hospital: Code Purple - Hostage Situation
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ID: SHSUC007

Smart Hospital: Code Purple - Hostage Situation

Code PurpleHostage Situation in Hospital

Hostage situations in hospitals can be difficult to manage if staff cannot be contacted safely and efficiently. If staff are unaware of the situation, they may inadvertently walk into danger instead of avoiding it. Additionally, patients and visitors could have escaped the hostage situation if staff had been able to coordinate quickly.

Growth, the SimplyCast Way

SimplyCast’s Code Purple use case ensures all required staff are in contact to ensure their safety and that of their patients. The situation must be resolved quickly, sometimes without alerting the hostage takers of the external situation. The use of discreet communication methods is vital to maintaining the element of surprise and protecting everyone involved.

  • Send alerts to all staff to ensure they avoid the emergency areas and evacuate if necessary.
  • Launch pre-defined emergency response plans.
  • Provide staff the ability to report relevant information that can be handed over to the authorities.

By utilizing alerts and communication through various channels, the Code Purple in a hospital can be quickly and efficiently dealt with to return the hospital to normal operations.

The Benefits:

  • Code Purple keeps staff safe through information and the ability to take immediate actions to protect themselves and patients, significantly reducing panic while improving the safety of all during the situation.
  • With the pre-defined emergency response plans already created, they can be activated swiftly to minimize potential harm to staff and patients.
  • Discreet communication methods allow staff to coordinate without alerting hostage takers, preserving the element of surprise for a more effective resolution.
  • Staff can report relevant information in real time to facilitate communication with authorities and immediately address critical details.

Actions for Success

  1. Create a staff registry in the CRM that includes job titles, functions, and more.
  2. Create a template of messages to send out when a Code Purple is called.
  3. Once launched by the administration, an alert will be sent to every staff member in the hospital, notifying them via multiple channels. Members who may be in the situation can be removed from the alert so as not to tip off hostage taker(s).
  4. Staff can respond when the situation allows, confirming their safety and those of their patients to provide law enforcement and management with up-to-date information.
  5. The appropriate information can then be collected and used to work with authorities or to create a detailed report following the instance.

Frequently Asked Questions

A code purple emergency is called during hostage-related situations. Code purples are launched to ensure responses can be made to these situations diligently. During a code purple, hospitals typically go on lockdown to ensure that responses can occur easily.  

SimplyCast’s Code Purple Alerts solution enables hospitals to streamline and automate their emergency alert processes. This system helps reduce manual tasks, optimize emergency responses, and manage stress during critical situations. The code purple use case utilizes measures such as a staff registry, dynamic alerts, message templates, and a central database for information to improve the overall management of code purples.  

The use of SimplyCast’s code purple use case encompasses a wide array of benefits. This includes benefits such as having dynamic alerts, enhanced communications, improvements to response times, and increased safety during these situations. Reductions to the manual workload is another notable benefits that is crucial in code purple situations where fast responses hold high importance. These are just some of the many benefits of a code purple use case.  

This use case follows six essential steps that include the following: 

  1. Staff registry: First, the code purple use case provides access to a dynamic staff registry. This allows staff members to complete forms to ensure accurate staff information is put into the database, such as names, contact details, department, availability, and more. Through the registry alerts will be able to successfully launch to the right staff members.  
  2. Templates: Code purple templates allow for the immediate launch of alerts by preparing messages that must be sent out to staff in advance and contain all of the essential information.  
  3. Alerts: Dynamic alerts are sent out once a code purple situation occurs simply requiring a staff member to activate and launch the alert.  
  4. Alert receipts: In this step, staff members select whether they have received the alert. If they do not select whether they have received an alert, they will continue to receive more at intervals until they confirm.  
  5. Information collection: Staff can share critical information throughout the event through submitting text messages to a shortcode. All of the information shared will then go into a central database. 
  6. Incident management: All of the information stored in the central database can be accessed for insights, allowing for greater accuracy and improved decision-making.  

These steps all foster significant improvements in the management of code purple incidents. 

Alerts may be sent using text messages, voice broadcasts, and email. Optionally, messages may be sent to multiple communication channels at once.  

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