It has been 14 years since WSHA led the creation of statewide standard hospital emergency codes to help staff across hospitals understand and effectively manage emergency situations. Since then, individual hospitals have added multiple additional codes resulting in a diminution of the positive benefits of standardization. During the last several months, WSHA has led a workgroup of WSHA members with clinical expertise in emergency department care, trauma, perinatal and hospital operations to modernize and implement 15 safety, security and/or clinical events that universally support all campuses. WSHA plans to go live with the new codes Oct. 1.
Project milestones have included the review and development of standard, universal, plain language emergency codes to support facility safety, security and medical events. Over the next two months, the workgroup will develop plain language training, education and visual tools, and planning for piloting resources.
Emergency codes allow trained hospital personnel to respond quickly and appropriately to various safety, security and clinical incidents. There has been a trend to standardize overhead hospital emergency codes with an increased focus on the adoption of plain language and plain text. Standardizing codes also allows staff working at multiple hospitals to respond quickly and appropriately to safety, security and clinical incidents.
For more information, please reach out to Tina Seery. (Tina Seery)
