November 2025
Thanks to your engagement, we’re seeing an increase in the number of people accessing this update, and I hope you find it valuable. Over the past months, I’ve had the opportunity to connect with some of you at important events including a Washington State Public Health Association discussion regarding impacts and readiness for wildfire smoke and extreme heat.
This month’s Update includes more in-depth progress on FIFA 2026 World Cup preparedness, NDMS operational surge planning, and the DMCC plan and recommendations we shared last month. You’ll also find information regarding health care worker masking recommendations, the launch of regional FIFA planning, and an exciting staffing update.
And I’m pleased to share we’ve posted the Network Year in Review, you can access here. This represents the incredible work of our team and each of you in collaboration to create preparedness, response and resilience for our state’s communities.
Your feedback and access to this information are so important and if you have not yet shared recommendations for feature topics, please send me your thinking at info@nwhrn.org.
Our District Coordinator Team has continued engaging with the statewide regional DMCCs as they finalize an overarching DMCC framework. Once the framework is complete, our team will go back to meet with the individual regional DMCCs and their intersecting EMS partners, to move to the next phase of using the framework to build a comprehensive plan that addresses unique needs of each region.
Each regional plan will both leverage and maintain the integrity of the overarching framework. Learn more here.
The name of the framework has been updated to better represent the broader focus and purpose. Our team is incorporating the additional and final feedback in advance of publishing a comprehensive plan that will be announced and available on our website by mid-December.
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, and connects with the State-wide 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 strategies at both local and regional levels for the upcoming FIFA events. 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 Rural and Critical Access clinical workgroup continues to meet to understand and collect data on transfer times and associated causes of delays in transfers. Additionally, our district team will be launching meetings beginning in January 2026, with Rural and Critical Access Healthcare partners across the state. The focus is to connect with their priorities, assess gaps for support, and create space for partners to share best practices. These will be action-oriented discussions with work that will continue to evolve depending on partner needs. If you are interested in attending either of these meetings, please let me know!
The result of a collaborative and thoughtful process, the Masking Consensus Statement for the 2025-2026 respiratory season was posted on October 20. Invaluable contributions were provided, with significant contributions made by the many infectious disease and public health experts who serve on the Network Acute Infectious Disease Masking Workgroup who continue to collaborate and support this work. All previous signatories remained committed collaborators and signed this latest guidance which is anchored in principle to apply an evidenced base approach to healthcare worker masking procedures. Based on that principle a new transmission alert has been implemented using Acute Respiratory Illness (ARI) diagnosed with ED visits. For more specifics, please see the full statement.
I’m thrilled to welcome Jennifer Lord to the Network team as our new Planning, Training, and Exercise Manager. You may know Jenn from her previous work in healthcare emergency management, including her earlier time with the Network.
Jenn serves as an adjunct professor in Thomas Jefferson University’s Emergency and Disaster Management Master’s program, where she teaches Principles of Disaster Exercises and Drills. She brings deep real-world experience as a former consumer marketing manager, longtime EMT, and hospital emergency manager for several health systems in Connecticut and Washington. Her disaster response experience spans major events including September 11th, the H1N1 flu strain, response to Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, and COVID-19. She holds an MS in Disaster Medicine and Management and a Graduate Certificate in Business Continuity. She is also a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) through IAEM and a Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP) through FEMA’s National Emergency Management Institute.
Please join me in welcoming Jenn to the team!
Continued monitoring of potential infectious disease impacts on our communities and developing strategies to keep us all safe is no small feat. This accountability has been served by the Region X Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC) as part of the National Special Pathogen System (NSPS). Their hub and spoke model support plans, training, and exercises to create understanding of ongoing threats, mitigate impact and ensure that special pathogens treatment is available. Additionally, the Acute Infectious Disease Workgroup, hosted by the Network, is made up of dedicated professionals within the public health and infectious disease disciplines. This group monitors, tracks, and develops strategies to mitigate the impact of infectious diseases in our state. We thank you for the work that you do — often behind the scenes — to keep us informed, prepared, and ready to respond.