Diagnostic Medical Sonography News November 2019 | Page 5

Hospital Codes
Our Junior Sonography class will soon find out where our first internship hospital
sites will be. While we will be working at our various sites, students will have to
become familiar with hospital codes. Since there are no state-wide regulations on
hospital codes, each one of us will have to become familiar with hospital codes at
our specific sites. It is essential to the safety of patients and employees to know each
one of their procedures. The list below shows common hospital codes identified by
specific colors.
• CODE PINK: Infant or child abduction
• CODE ORANGE: Hazardous material or spill incident
• CODE SILVER: Active shooter
• CODE VIOLET: Violent or combative individual
• CODE YELLOW: Disaster
• CODE BROWN: Severe weather
• CODE WHITE: Evacuation
• CODE GREEN: Emergency activation
A few times per month, our sonography students simulate hospital-like scanning
scenarios, where we have to follow scanning protocols in a timely manner. These
protocols are then discussed by actual radiologists. We call these days “Clandorf”, a
word made up of the names of our instructors that created the idea. For this event,
our Juniors came up with our own hospital codes here at EFSC.
ClanDorf Codes:
CODE BLUE: Manager is stressed out
CODE PURPLE: There is a machine not being used
CODE RED: A machine is not working
CODE SILVER: Radiologist is waiting
CODE WHITE: Laundry is getting low
CODE BLACK: Running behind schedule
CODE ORANGE: Harry is coming
CODE PINK: Patient is missing (Harry stole your patient)
CODE YELLOW: Dan is coming
CODE GREEN: Patient is having an allergic reaction
CODE BROWN: Radiologist needs coffee
CODE GREY: A sonographer is having a breakdown
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