On the job training is part of most employees' careers. At Catalina Island Medical Center, that training saves lives.

Many of CIMC's non-medical employees gathered in the facility's recently remodeled emergency room for annual training on Feb. 24. Maintenance staff, accounting personnel and kitchen employees may have little interaction with patients on a day-to-day basis, but they can and do help out in emergencies.

Everyone who works at CIMC is certified in Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation. Special training also helps ensure that employees know exactly what needs to be done in case of an emergency at the facility.

"We train employees at the level they're capable of," said Doreen Macktal, director of patient care services. "We don't want them to be doctors or nurses, but if there's only one doctor and one nurse working at the time of the emergency we may need an extra set of hands."

In case of an emergency, non-medical personnel may be needed to move equipment, notify other staff members or communicate with the patient's family. They can also help to transport a patient to the emergency room or bring equipment to the patient's location.

 A large part of responding to an emergency involves alerting appropriate staff to the nature and location of an emergency. At hospitals in the United States, including CIMC, that is done with a series of color codes.

Although there are about a dozen codes, including colors for person with a gun, bomb threat and combative person, Catalina Island Medical Center only uses one on a regular basis. Code Blue alerts medical center staff that there is a medical emergency. When combined with the location of the emergency, those two words give the facility's entire staff enough information to respond. The staff also trains for other codes, including Code Red, which is fire in the building.

"The codes are a very effective shorthand for the public address system," Macktal said. "They let the staff know what is going on without causing panic."

By undergoing training each year, even the non-medical personnel at CIMC also know what to do when they hear those codes.

For more information visit www.CatalinaIslandMedicalCenter.org