King County Healthcare Coalition

Information & Resource Management

Information and resource management is a key component of an effective emergency response. The King County Healthcare Coalition works hard to ensure that health and medical responders have access to the most up-to-date resource information on our healthcare system. Key components of this effort include:

• WATrac – Washington State’s Healthcare Incident Management System
• Critical Infrastructure Partnerships

WATrac – Tracking Resources, Alerting, and Communications for a better Washington

Public Health – Seattle & King County is currently under contract with the Washington State Department of Health to lead the statewide implementation of WATrac, Washington’s Healthcare Incident Management system. This system helps coordinate a healthcare response by:

• Facilitating resources
• Pharmaceutical and bed tracking
• Alerting responders,
• Coordinating communications, and
• Displaying situational-status information on healthcare facilities throughout Washington State

By the end of 2008, the system will be in daily use by 2/3 of the state for Emergency Department status tracking and hospital bed tracking. Currently, the WATrac Implementation Team is training hospitals throughout Washington in preparation for the end-of-year transition.