OUR TOOLS

Training & Exercises

Coalition-wide exercises support greater coalition coordination, communications, and response capabilities.

Trainings

The Network collaborates with partners on training needs in the healthcare community. NWHRN hosted trainings can be found on the calendar or referenced in the latest WA State Healthcare Situational Awareness Brief. Please connect with us at info@nwhrn.org if your organization is looking for a training resource.

Exercises

The Network offers two annually recurring operations-based exercises to practice, test, and course-correct regional healthcare coalition plans and provide opportunities for hospitals and non-hospital healthcare partners to participate in community-wide exercises. Coalition-wide exercises support greater coalition coordination, communications, and response capabilities. They are designed to meet Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and Washington Department of Health (DOH) standards.

The Medical Response Surge Exercise – June The Medical Response Surge Exercise (MRSE) is a functional exercise to test the ability of the coalition and healthcare partners to support a medical surge event in effort to foster preparedness and emergency response planning. The MRSE is divided into three phases:

The 2025 MRSE After Action Report (AAR) is available HERE.

Phase 1 – Plan & Scope – Healthcare Coalitions (HCCs) will develop a surge scenario, plan exercise roles to understand healthcare partners’ needs, and plan/scope data for the MRSE Exercise Planning & Evaluation Tool.
Phase 2 – Exercise – HCCs will execute plan following developed HCC Emergency Plan.
Phase 3 – Review – HCCs will develop an After Action Plan (AAR) and improvement plan to include recommendations from healthcare partners.

Fall Exercise (Fall-Ex)

The Network’s Fall-Ex focuses on testing specific priority capabilities in a coalition-wide operations-based exercise format. This recurring exercise provides opportunities to test coalition plans, work through coalition gaps identified in the MRSE, and incorporate partner areas of interest. Shiver Me Timbers! Exercise An exercise built for our Long Term Care partners to assess readiness for an earthquake scenario. Learn more HERE.

Exercise After Action Reports (AARs)

Spring 2024 CommEx AAR

The purpose of the Spring 2024 CommEx was to evaluate the capabilities of the Northwest Healthcare Response Network (NWHRN) to effectively reach healthcare partners and notify them of incidents and provide ongoing situational awareness during a low notice/no notice event to closely mirror actions that would be taken during a real-world event. Through an analysis of strengths and areas for improvement, the exercise aimed to identify opportunities for enhancing emergency communications.

The results of the communication exercise indicate that NWHRN was overall successful when reaching partners, specifically via text message, in which we saw a large improvement from the Fall 2023 CommEx. Thank you to all of our partners who participated in the exercise we appreciate your engagement in the ongoing efforts to ensure our emergency communication is successful. Please see the 2024 Spring CommEx AAR available HERE.

Business Resiliency Workshop

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Exercise Design Training

Pediatric Disaster Response Workshop

Health Support Team Disaster Behavioral Workshop

Exercise After Action Reports (AARs)Healthcare Preparedness Capability by Job Group and Proficiency Crosswalk

This crosswalk has been created to support the development of a healthcare emergency preparedness plan and training program and may be used in conjunction with a Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA). The HVA helps prioritize what needs to be planned for; the crosswalk identifies the knowledge, skills and resources needed for facilities and staff to effectively respond to incidents.

Healthcare Preparedness Capabilities Functions by Job Group and Proficiency Levels

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Regional and National Training and Exercise Opportunities:

Washington State Emergency Management Division (EMD) Training Calendar and Resources:https://mil.wa.gov/training-and-exercise
FEMA Emergency Management Institute https://training.fema.gov/
Visit our Calendar page to learn about local trainings and exercises offered by the Network and our partners.

For more information about training and exercises, please contact info@nwhrn.org.