Profile and predictors of outcome for code blue cases in a tertiary care hospital in Mangalore

Back ground Code Blue is a common emergency code used in cases of cardiac arrest in hospitals to alert trained emergency response teams. The use of codes is mainly to convey essential information quickly to staff while preventing misunderstandings and panic among hospital visitors. This study aimed to determine the profiles and outcomes of patients with activated code blue calls. Methods This retrospective record-based study included all patients who had a code blue declared in the year 2022. Data was collected from the patient files from medical records department and analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Results A total of 86 code blue calls were analyzed in this study. In terms of age distribution, the age group 60-80 years had the highest percentage of code blue cases. Code blue cases were more announced in males in the study (55.8%). For the announced code blue cases, it was identified that CPR if initiated by the staff on scene before the arrival of the code blue team had higher survival chance (60.0%). Asystole was the most common rhythm detected initially (66.3%) upon arrival of the code blue team. It was found that if the response time was lesser than 2 min, the patients had a higher chance of survival (53.3%). Conclusions In conclusion, CPR performed by a trained code blue team in a hospital can help improve outcomes. The initiation of bystander CPR has been proven to have favorable outcomes. Better training of staff can result in better outcomes.