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Wisconsin hospitals consider standardized emergency codes

Emergency Management Alert, October 4, 2004

Wisconsin hospitals are weighing in on statewide standardized emergency codes, the Central Wisconsin Sunday reported.

A lack of standardized codes hasn't affected hospitals in central Wisconsin yet, said Jim Monarski, coordinator of the Region 2 Bioterrorism Project, which consists of 15 hospitals in 12 counties. But Monarski fears that different emergency codes might cause delays in a disaster.

"Say there was a plane crash. Then you've got a couple hundred casualties. Wausau gets swamped. They might pull volunteer workers not familiar with the codes in the system, and right then there's the issue," Monarski told the Central Wisconsin Sunday.

During disaster response, hospitals often use volunteers from other facilities for help. Different emergency codes could cause confusion among hospital workers. At a disaster drill at Marshfield Clinic, the announcement of color codes confused clinic and Saint Joseph's Hospital employees.

However, some hospital officials believe standardizing codes is unrealistic.

"Every hospital is a little bit different, and a lot of that goes from the history of the hospital," Michael Neely, director of facility services at St. Michael's Hospital told the Central Wisconsin Sunday. "After years of training one way, it's difficult to change to another. There was a movement in the past that hospitals should standardize their types of codes, but it's never gone very far."

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