| Each color used in the hospital color codes has a specific meaning | Often terminal patients that do not have much time left ask to be given purple bands because they are ready for the pain and suffering to end |
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| Code Red again can have dual meanings | Mending Bodies, Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals 1999 ; world coverage• People who have recently has hip surgery are often given yellow bands to wear until they have healed |
The color code system is used to inform a group of people at the same time about a situation in as little words as possible.
| Green simply means that the person is highly allergic to latex | Hospitals and Healing From Antiquity to the Later Middle Ages 2008• Chaney, Edward 2000 ,"'Philanthropy in Italy': English Observations on Italian Hospitals 1545—1789", in: The Evolution of the Grand Tour: Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations since the Renaissance, 2nd ed |
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| Depending on which region of the country the hospital is located brown can have a few meanings | See Grace Goldin, Work of Mercy Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1994 , 33, 50-57 |
| "From Jami'ah to University: Multiculturalism and Christian—Muslim Dialogue" | The most common meaning is a severe weather watch |
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| Yellow means the person is at a high risk for falling | "The British National Health Service 1948—2008: A Review of the Historiography," Social History of Medicine, December 2008, Vol |
Code Silver informs the hospital that an armed person is in the hospital and there is a possible hostage situation.