Dive Brief:
- The Missouri Hospital Association is asking its members to use more transparent language during emergency situations, such as "bomb threat" rather than code words, arguing that plain language will improve patient safety and response time.
- According to Leslie Porth, VP of health planning at the MHA, outdated color codes (e.g. "code orange") can delay the response from visitors and patients who don't understand what was going on. "Plain language leads to increased patient safety and reduces confusion," Porth told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
- The recommendations come from a task force started in 2012 to address language changes, after a tornado destroyed 320-bed St. John's Regional Medical Center of Joplin, Mo.
Dive Insight:
It's good to see hospitals deciding to communicate with more clarity. Sure, there's always the possibility that knowing that something bad is going down could create a panic, but from what Porth said, it's more likely that knowledge will be power in an emergency. And by keeping medical codes in place, which the MHA recommends, clinicians can still respond instinctively to familiar messages.