Inside hospitals across America, color codes designate specific types of emergencies.
Code blue indicates a cardiac or respiratory arrest. Code red specifies smoke or fire. Code pink means an infant needs emergency intervention. Code black typically indicates that there is a bomb threat to the facility. A “code purple” indicates a staff member feels unsafe. Most emergency codes convey objective information, while the code purple is subjective and summons both security personnel and a mental health professional to the bedside.
Between 2008 and 2011, according to an internal report from the Center for Diversity and Health Equity at Seattle Children’s Hospital, “code purple” was called on Black patients far more often than white ones. Immediate action was recommended at that time. Unfortunately, according to a Seattle Times analysis of data since 2014 on the frequency of security calls from the hospital’s inpatient and observation units, nothing has changed. Seattle Children’s Hospital — the organization serving the largest region of any children’s hospital in the nation — calls security on Black patients twice as frequently as white patients.