King County Healthcare Coalition

Planning & Preparing

This section of the Toolkit is designed to provide suggestions on how to approach the planning process as well as examples of key planning elements including planning assumptions, priorities, purpose and objectives.

If your health jurisdiction is not undertaking the entire coalition development process, this section will illustrate some of the considerations that an individual organization can address in development.

The planning process for any large scale coordination endeavor can often feel overwhelming. Teams can get frustrated and feel that no movement forward has been accomplished, yet the relationships that are built and the process of planning is worthwhile.

Similar to the assessment phase, we recommend setting realistic objectives, dividing the tasks and setting clear deadlines for completion. Using ours as a sample, develop your own Healthcare Coalition Planning Checklist to best fit the needs of your team.

Planning Checklist

  1. Assemble Initial Development Team
  2. Strategize Coalition Development
  3. Assess and Engage External Stakeholders
  4. Identify Initial Planning Priorities
  5. Develop Purpose, Goals and Objectives
  6. Identify Communication & Coordination Strategies
  7. Develop Planning and Response Structure
  8. Determine System Gaps for Medical Surge Capacity and Capability
  9. Consider Information and Resource Management during a response
  10. Organize specific projects in planning areas, e.g. Pediatric, long term care, home health, behavioral health, ambulatory care, palliative care
  11. Consider Coordination of Call Centers for information dissemination and triage
  12. Consider development of Alternate Care Facilities
  13. Address and Document Legal, Insurance, and Union Coordination & Planning issues
  14. Ensure Cross County Coordination and Planning
  15. Identify potential funding sources for work