Background: Code Blues, or in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrests, are high intensity, often fatal events occurring frequently within the hospital. National data reviews estimate that survival to discharge following an in-hospital cardiac event is about 24.4%. Further analysis has shown lower survival rates when comparing night shift physicians with day shift physicians (20.7% and 27.5% respectively), but [...]

Background: Code Blue events, or in-hospital patient emergencies, often require advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) and unfortunately can end in loss of life. Defining and measuring outcomes is an essential step for improvement in any process, but especially for a process as critical as Code Blues.  In our institution, Code Blues are run by a [...]

Case Presentation: A 37 year old man with history of alcohol abuse presented to the emergency department for a one month history of jaundice, nausea, vomiting and weight loss. Physical exam was significant for mild diffuse abdominal tenderness and jaundice. Labs were remarkable for a total bilirubin of 34.1, direct 17.5, alkaline phosphatase of 203, [...]