‘Code Blue’ in Theorically versus Daily Practice: Data from a Secondary Care Hospital

AIM: Education about the code blue team has been provided in all hospitals,but true "code blue" activation is rare.This study aimed to evaluate the true code blue rates and to ask if there is a need of education about code blue or another team to reduce team efforts in hospital.
MATERIAL-METHODS: In this cross sectional study,a secondary care hospital's code blue reports were searched retrospectively from the forms recorded and a self-administered structured survey with health staff was made to determine level of knowledge about code blue.
RESULTS: Code blue activated 123 times totally. Code blue activated mostly from the services(n=43).22 of patients had been hospitalized;34 of patients had admitted to ICU;19 of patients had been exitus and the rest 20 of patients had externed.The overall response times were <3 minutes in all code blue cases.120 staffs participated to self-administered structered survey totally.In evaluation of results,38 participants were located in moderate group,82 participants were located in adequate awareness group.There was no significant association between demographic characteristics and the status of awareness about the code blue system(p>0,05).
CONCLUSION: The most significant problem is the number of inappropriate calls.To achieve a lower number of inappropriate calls,we must continue the periodic in-service basic life support training.