When emergencies arise at a hospital, a unique colour coding system is in place to communicate the type of crisis the medical staff should be preparing for. For example, a Code Blue indicates a cardiac arrest, immediately activating the essential responders and protocol required for such an event. Time is of the essence during these critical situations, requiring three things: a quick response, the appropriate personnel and the necessary equipment. Hospitals have been able to associate each of the most common emergencies with one of the eleven basic colour groupings: yellow, red, blue, green, orange, purple, pink, brown, black, white and grey.
Not all hospitals follow the same colour coding system; variations do exist. However, some classic colour associations are common to most codes – like red for fire, yellow for missing patient and white for a violent situation. Each hospital posts emergency colour code signs throughout the facility. For quick reference, many include the code on the reverse side of employee identification badges.