Visit our Calendar page to learn about NWHRN-led or hosted trainings and exercises.

 

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. We offer the following exercises:   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:
  • 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.

 

Training

The Network develops innovative, year-round training and exercise opportunities tailored to the unique needs of Washington state’s healthcare community. Our partners—including the leading medical institutions in the region—contribute the latest knowledge to help ensure each training is relevant to the needs of our region’s healthcare organizations. The Network offers the following workshops, which can be tailored to suit the needs of your facility:
  • Pediatric Disaster Response Workshop
  • Health Support Team Disaster Behavioral Workshop
 

Online Training

  • Clinic Disaster Preparedness: This online training series is no longer supported. We hope to offer an updated version of this training in the future. (as of Dec 31, 2021)

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.

Regional and National Training and Exercise Opportunities:

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