King County Healthcare Coalition

Training & Exercises

Providing the community with effective healthcare during or following an emergency requires strategic planning, training and practice. Training and exercises provided by the King County Healthcare Coalition strive to create consistency in response across the region. They are also intended to provide a platform for healthcare organizations to network with local first responders on all-hazard issues.

Training needs are identified through real events, exercises or current planning gaps and identified needs. The Coalition staff coordinates with all healthcare sectors to support the development of trainings and exercises that meet the needs of each sector. The same is done in regards to exercises. The exercises sponsored by the Coalition are expected to test the limits of the region’s emergency management plans and operational systems. Exercise needs are identified by healthcare organizations and each exercise strives to include all exercise requirement components for healthcare (for example Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response (ASPR) requirements as well as Joint Commission requirements).

Exercising is a valuable tool for practicing, testing and identifying areas of need before a disaster occurs. Evaluation of these exercises not only identifies accomplishments, but helps to shape guidance on areas of improvement that will better future planning and training efforts. Each healthcare organization is responsible for defining staff roles and responsibilities as well as implementing organizational objectives for drills within their own agencies. These standards are based on past critiques, hazard vulnerability analyses (HVAs) or internal exercise priorities.

The Coalition assists healthcare organizations in the cycle of planning, training and exercising by providing leadership in organizing events, giving templates for planning purposes and by supporting the efforts of collaboration among all healthcare sectors.