Healthcare Coalition

About the Coalition

The Coalition began in 1999 as a hospital emergency-preparedness task force and later expanded to include a broader range of healthcare providers and response partners. In 2017, it was reorganized to support the healthcare community’s implementation of federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services emergency-preparedness requirements.

Mission

The Coalition’s mission is to support a collaborative, coordinated, community-wide healthcare response that maintains access to safe and effective care during emergencies and disasters.

What We Do

The SMCHC brings healthcare and response partners together to:

• Develop and coordinate emergency plans
• Share information and maintain situational awareness
• Identify healthcare capacity, resource needs and system impacts
• Coordinate with the MHOAC Program during emergencies
• Provide emergency-preparedness training and technical assistance
• Conduct exercises that test healthcare surge capacity and emergency plans
• Identify lessons learned and improve preparedness

Training and exercises may address incident-command systems, medical and health coordination, mass-casualty response, medical countermeasures, hazardous materials, emergency operations and healthcare surge.

Membership and Participation

Membership is open to hospitals, clinics, long-term-care facilities, emergency medical services, public-health agencies, emergency management and other healthcare and community partners. Members participate in regular meetings, training, exercises, planning activities and emergency communications.

Coalition members may also receive access to ReddiNet for healthcare-status reporting, information sharing and emergency resource requests. Medical and health mutual-aid requests are coordinated through the MHOAC Program.

Healthcare organizations interested in joining or learning more should contact the EMS Agency.