The Evaluation of Effectiveness and Outcomes of Code Blue System in a New Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Objective: The code blue call is used to alert the Code Blue team for patients with cardiac or respiratory arrest. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the time, the locations, and the outcomes of code blue calls. We also aimed to determine the rate of false code blue calls, and demographic data of the patients. Material and Methods: In this study, we retrospectively scanned the code blue call forms in our hospital between January 2017 and January 2018. The demographic data of the patients, the arrival time of the team, the time, the locations, and the outcomes of the calls, and the rate of false code blue calls were recorded. Results: We had 225 code blue calls in the study period. The mean arrival time of the team was 1.97±0.72 min. Most of the code blue calls were given in Palliative Care Unit (76 patients, 33.77 %), followed by Internal Medicine Services (54 patients, 24 %), and Department of Pulmonary Diseases (36 patients, 16%). The rate of false code blue calls was found to be 13.33 %. Most of the code blue calls (140 calls, 62.22 %) were during off times. A hundred patients had died (44.44 %); 88 patients had been admitted to the ICU (39.11 %); and 7 had been continued care in ward (3.11 %) by a successful intervention. Conclusion: Giving more blue code calls during off-hours and the absence of night duty doctor at the services, especially in rural hospitals like ours, emphasizes the importance of this system.