December 2025
This past week has exemplified the readiness and collaboration of our healthcare and emergency response partners as we respond to impacts of historic flooding across the state. Our team activated, contacting many of you located in flood zones and accountable for healthcare services, to understand immediate impacts you were facing and your immediate needs. Creating a shared situational awareness of those needs, activating resource requests and readiness for patient movement, has been a critical priority we have been able to deliver.
Through this threat, at a time when we’re also seeking to take time with either our families, friends or colleagues to recognize the holiday season, I want to acknowledge that your roles in healthcare crisis preparedness and readiness likely requires that you’re “on call” during the holidays.
Your engagement in today’s crisis and the way you lean in daily is reflected in the number of you accessing information we’re sharing specific to masking guidelines, WATrac reporting, and engaging with this monthly update. Our data reflects that the information we’re providing to help you do your job is the most visited and the highest in demand.
I’m keeping my focus on the work we’re doing together now, while also looking ahead to the new year where we’re all continuing to prepare for trainings and programs that keep your communities safe. We know 2026 will continue to bring statewide focus on FIFA 2026 World Cup preparedness, and we’ll be sharing even more details on the NDMS operational surge planning and the broader impacts it has on our collective work.
This month’s update will focus on the DMCC framework, next steps in healthcare operational surge supporting NDMS, and updates from the Rural and Critical Access workgroup, all of which will further expand into the new year.
Please keep your inputs and requests for information coming to me at info@nwhrn.org, and thanks for all you do across healthcare to keep your communities and partners healthy
The Network Team is:
Our District Coordinator Team and the Regional DMCC representatives have finalized and approved an overarching DMCC framework! We are meeting with the regional DMCC’s today (Dec. 15, 2025) in preparation for meeting with the regional DMCC representatives and their intersecting EMS partners as the work moves to the next phase of using the framework to build a comprehensive plan by early June that addresses unique needs of each region.
The FIFA World Cup Regional Healthcare Planning and Preparedness Coordination Workgroup is intended to share information on scheduled FIFA events and ongoing planning efforts within Western, Central and Eastern WA, effectively connecting with statewide and county-specific planning efforts. It also serves as a collaborative space for healthcare providers, emergency management teams, local health authorities, EMS agencies, and tribal partners, to coordinate and align upcoming FIFA event strategies at both local and regional levels.
Agencies and healthcare organizations across the state are at varying stages of preparation for the World Cup, and we hope this platform will foster participation from all entities to bolster and help identify any gaps in their planning processes. The next meeting for the FIFA State MCI Annex will be held in mid-January.
The Rural and Critical Access clinical workgroup continues to come together to collect data and better understand transfer times and associated causes of delays in transfers. Beginning in 2026, Rural and Critical Access Emergency Management partners will join our clinical colleagues to expand the breadth of the focus of the workgroup.