Penn Highlands Healthcare simplifies alert system

Color codes will be replaced with easier-to-understand language.

Penn Highlands Healthcare will implement new standardized medical, facility and security alerts across its hospitals and senior living facilities starting at 12:01 a.m. Sunday.

The goal is to move from color codes like “code blue” to being more clear with staff and patients with phrases such as “medical emergency” to improve communications and responses during emergencies, according to Jocelyn Long, director of quality and safety for Penn Highlands.

All hospitals use different color codes differently, Long added, and it can be confusing for some staff members moving from different facilities.

“Each of our facilities looks a little bit different,” she said. “Down in Mon Valley, they have a busy hospital as well where they would be using two or three per day or week.”

Megan Bussard, system vice president of quality and safety, said the change in alerts was prompted by a desire to improve safety and consistency.

“The first thing is we are a relatively young health care system, and as we have brought in new facilities, everyone has historically had their legacy code systems,” Bussard said. “So across Penn Highlands, when we have physicians, nurses and staff that are working within multiple buildings, they have to memorize and adopt current code language for the facility that they are working in.

“That can be very confusing and sometimes they may not respond appropriately because they are not accustomed to the codes and the colors that are being called within that building.”

According to Long, it has taken two months to talk with all the system’s hospitals to make sure they cover everything — educating providers and staff as well as providing badges to all their employees with the new code names.

Bussard said they have had an extensive plan to work through frustrations, hiccups and getting started early with dual announcements. Hospitals have been calling the colors and names of the alerts for the past week to make the transition easier.

“Communication has been key to this,” Bussard said. “We are thinking from all different angles on how this could potentially have an impact on us.”

Alerts include medical emergency, pediatric medical emergency, rapid response team and more. Security alerts include assistance required and active shooter, as well as facility alerts like fire alarm activation and several more.

“The new alerts use clear, everyday language to ensure that everyone — including patients and visitors — understand the nature of the situations and the actions required to be taken,” a release from the healthcare system reads. “At Penn Highlands Healthcare, the safety of our patients, visitors, employees, physicians and volunteers are one of our highest priorities.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said the standardized emergency alerts ensure consistent and effective communication during critical situations.

This standardization helps individuals understand and respond appropriately to emergencies, regardless of their location or the specific alert system used.

According to the release, Penn Highlands is one of the first health systems in Pennsylvania to implement plain language alerts. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have encouraged these alerts.

Bussard said there has been a lot of national attention around standardizing these alerts, and it helps patients as well so they can understand the importance of what is going on — allowing more people to come through their system.

“If a code red was called overhead, a patient or visitor might not know they are in danger and need to evacuate the area if they are able to do so,” Bussard said. “By utilizing that plain language, that allows anyone within our walls to have the ability to act appropriately to the things going on around them.”

Both Long and Bussard said there could be a fear among patients starting this kind of alert system.

But by being transparent, Bussard said patients have a better understanding of what is going on around them.

“Sometimes there is fear when you do something like this because we are being transparent with alerts and codes, but when you look at studies and research, you have a very good understanding of what’s going on around you,” Bussard said. “It can help lessen that frustration and fear that occurs within hospitals. It’s just a very big undertaking, so to go ahead and get it implemented quickly is definitely a challenge that many healthcare systems have come up against.”

Long said there were discussions of fear, transparency and communication, but the biggest aspect of these alerts is safety — responding timely and quickly.

“This really is a large campaign for us, and we are growing our system with lots of different facilities,” Long said. “It has taken a while, but I do feel like we are ready to go live.”