Preparedness & Ops Activities
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Preparedness & Operational Activities

Always On: 24/7 Support for Healthcare Emergencies and System Coordination

Ops updates

Activation

Wildfire Response

At the beginning of August 2026, The Network Healthcare Emergency Coordination Center (HECC) activated for the wildfires in Central & Eastern Washington. The Network continues to monitor the Wildfire Response and is available for support by contacting our Duty Officer at 425-988-2897 or hecc@nwhrn.org. 

On August 7, the Washington State Governor announced the Federal Public Health Emergency Declaration.

For those affected, The Network has the following resources available:

NWHRN Situational Awareness Reports:

Clinical Activations

Weather Activations

Mass Gathering Activations

Infrastructure Activations

Please call our Duty Officer if there’s any need for support at 425-988-2897 or HECC@nwhrn.org.

Preparedness

The Network collaborates with local response partners to prepare for extreme weather and environmental events. State and regional responses to these events continue to prove that organizations are most resilient and effective when partners are pro-active in their planning efforts, share and learn from each other, and most importantly, work together.

Resources can be found at: https://nwhrn.org/resources-and-links/

Since 2020, the Network has responded to over 70 activations supporting access to care for communities across the state.

NWHRN Activation Levels

Level 3 - Not Activated (Daily Operations)

No anticipated or presently occuring incident or event requiring HECC activation.

Actions:

The Healthcare Emergency Coordination Center (HECC) is not activated but the NWHRN Duty Officer, on-call Incident Commander and Response Operations team members respond to the needs of the healthcare community by issuing advisories, coordinating event specific meetings, disseminating situational awareness information and handling oneoff resource or other requests from healthcare partners. Incident command structure roles are not typically activated or filled when responding to non-expanding small scale events or incidents.

Monitor for events or escalating incidents with the potential to impact the healthcare system.

The NWHRN Duty Officer remains available 24/7 monitoring situational awareness resources during normal business

Examples:

Known special events or anticipated weather with potential to impact healthcare or healthcare delivery in a localized region. Small or facility specific non-complex incidents not requiring significant coordination, outreach or resources.

Level 2 - Partial Activation

A event is occuring or anticipated requiring activation of the Healthcare Emergency Coordination Center (HECC) by staffing two or more response roles but no more than two sections and any necessary support roles of the NWHRN Incident Command structure.

Actions:

Activate the HECC and notify NWHRN Staff.
Activate the NWHRN Emergency Response Plan.
Assign Incident Command roles to NWHRN Staff as needed in anticipation of response needs.
Coordinate response with local agencies and partners as needed.
Monitor situational awareness and disseminate information as needed to affected healthcare agencies and facilities.
Activate appropriate annexes if needed.

Examples:

Large scale special events with anticipated impacts, weather events with ongoing or anticipated impacts, wide spread infrastructure failures, cyber incidents with broad impacts to healthcare, incidents or events requiring patient tracking or other integrated response support.

Level 1 - Full Activation

An event is occuring or anticipated requiring activation of the Healthcare Emergency Coordination Center (HECC) by activating more than two sections and at least one respective support role for each of the NWHRN incident command structure.

Actions:

Activate the HECC and notify NWHRN Staff. Activate the NWHRN Emergency Response Plan. Assign roles to NWHRN Staff as needed in anticipation of response needs. Assess situation prioritize response needs. Coordinate response with local and or regional agencies and partners. Monitor situational awareness and disseminate information as needed to affected healthcare agencies and facilities. Activate appropriate annexes if needed. Activate appropriate mutual aid plans, MOU’s or agreements. Scale operational roles as needed to meet response needs.

Examples:

Large scale or multiple facility evacuation, earthquake, terrorist attack, environmental disaster, large scale MCI, regional or national disease outbreak or official disaster declaration affecting healthcare.