Emergency Preparedness

St. Joseph’s has an emergency management program in place to prevent, mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies. Emergencies are unforeseen situations that demand prompt, coordinated actions that exceed normal procedures. St. Joseph’s goal is ensure the safety of individuals, limit damage to property and reduce any impacts on hospital operations.

An emergency code is a notification of an event that requires immediate action. At St. Joseph's, each emergency code is identified by a standardized colour, set by the Ontario Hospital Association, to allow for uniformity among hospitals. This also facilitates the translation of essential information to the responding code teams to ensure optimal response.

How are emergency codes called?

The extension 55555 is the hospital’s emergency telephone number.
In the case of an emergency, dial 55555 from any internal hospital phone and state your location and describe your emergency.

If you dial from a personal cell phone, ensure you provide the following:

• Situation and/or emergency code
• Site location, building/zone, level, and room number
• Common name of your area, unit or department

Urgent and non-emergency situations can be reported to Security Services by calling the hospital extension 44555.

Please note that there are other emergency codes that are available; however, these are the codes that residents, essential caregivers, families and visitors need to be made aware of.