Code white considerations  “Code white”, “Code black”, “Dr.
Murphy to room 202″, every hospital has an overhead page that
means that there is a disruptive person or patient who needs to
be controlled, either for their safety or for the safety of
others. Who attends these calls at your hospital? I had always
assumed that these calls were similar to a code blue in
mandating the immediate attendance of your critical care team
leader (in my shop thats the ED doc). However at some hospitals
the extra staff attending these calls is security staff, and the
on call doctor is only notified by phone.  Most of these calls
are for patients already admitted and on hospital wards. You
might ask why we as emergency doctors should take this job onto
our already overfull plate. The answer is simple, these are
patients who have, with some regularity, severe underlying
illness requiring recognition and treatment in a setting that
allows for only incomplete information and evaluation. In other
words, although these patients are