Hospitals should replace emergency codes with plain language

Journal of Healthcare Risk Management : the Journal of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management
Benjamin W Dauksewicz

Abstract

The common and frequent use of emergency codes by hospitals to communicate during life-threatening emergencies routinely segregates hospital staff from patients, visitors, and first-responders during emergencies by providing each group with a different level of information regarding the threat. By relying on codes instead of plain language to communicate during an emergency, a hospital may introduce ambiguity into a potentially life-threatening situation. Consequently, this means that coded alerts may endanger staff, patients, and visitors rather than protecting them from threats. This paper will maintain that (1) relying on codes, even standardized color codes for hospitals, interferes with the full integration of health care into the National Incident Management System (NIMS); (2) that planning to use plain language notifications improves coordination among response partners and ultimately increases safety for hospital patients, staff, and visitors; and (3) that the change to plain language is both practical and possible. This paper identifies both real world events and studies that demonstrate the benefits of using plain language alerts with directive messaging to elicit the desired response among members of the public durin...Continue Reading

References

Feb 1, 1961·Journal of the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology·R H Friedrich
Apr 6, 2012·The Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy·Jordane AlemanniJean-François Bussières
May 26, 2016·CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal = Journal De L'Association Medicale Canadienne·Matthew Bromwich, Rebecca Bromwich
Sep 11, 2016·The American Journal of Emergency Medicine·Kimberly B HornerJennifer R Marin
Apr 14, 2018·International Emergency Nursing·Hyo-Jin Lee, Ogcheol Lee

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Citations

Jan 23, 2019·Journal of Healthcare Risk Management : the Journal of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management·Johnnye L Dennis

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