Hospitals often use code names to alert staff to an emergency. Code blue means a medical emergency. Code red means fire or smoke. Code black typically means there is a bomb threat. Hospitals are the ...

Hospital emergency codes are used to swiftly alert staff to something requiring a quick response, but a recent study suggests many healthcare workers can't accurately identify them. To learn more, ...

This article, originally posted on Sept. 23, 2019, was updated on June 20, 2025, to reflect current data. Please note that these statistics aren’t updated regularly. Always check with your state’s ...