Disclosure of patient information

In our facility, a "code" is given to family members to call and obtain information on a patient's condition. Some of us ask the patient to designate one person to be a spokesperson for the family, so that we are not called from patient's bedside multiple times for multiple calls on the same patient. We also feel that this offers the patient some control over who is given information. Some of us give the code out to any person who asks for it! Management is "looking into" this to come up with a protocol. I'm just curious as to how other facilities handle this. Thanks for your input!!