West Region Health Care Coalition
Preparing our medical communities for emergency response and recovery.
Collaboration is essential to tackling today’s public health challenges — because no single organization or sector can do it alone. This is why relationship building and partnerships are at the heart of our work to support healthier communities. In this ongoing series, we spotlight the individuals, organizations, and collaboratives that make up Trailhead’s network of partners, sharing their impact in their own words.
Who do you or your organization serve?
West Region Health Care Coalition (West Region HCC) serves healthcare entities within a six-county region, including hospitals, schools, nursing homes, private clinics, and other emergency medical services. We focus on ensuring that these systems are adequately prepared to handle emergencies, and that WRHCC can also assist if needed.
Photo Credit: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
Which communities or regions do you support?
West Region HCC serves Delta, Montrose, Hinsdale, Gunnison, Ouray, and San Miguel counties.
What’s important about this work for your community?
This work is important for the community because it brings different types of services including healthcare providers, law enforcement, and fire departments into one unified response network. These organizations and agencies typically operate in silos and don’t need to collaborate on a daily basis, but in emergencies, it is crucial that they have established relationships. Tabletop and full-scale exercises play a key role in preparing emergency services for specific situations and potential areas of collaboration that may arise during a crisis. Additionally, our work supports the creation of scenario-specific preparedness plans and evacuation routes. Recent projects like the Ouray County Evacuation Plan and the Montrose City Mass Casualty Incident Plan exemplify the impact of this work in enhancing community preparedness and response capabilities.
How can people support your work or get involved?
We are always open to new members, including both healthcare agencies and other entities within surrounding regions. Interested individuals can complete the membership form available on our website.
Through fiscal sponsorship, how have you been able to increase your impact? Or how has your work changed or evolved without having to deal with administrative burdens?
Through fiscal sponsorship, we’ve been able to significantly increase our impact by reducing administrative burdens. Previously, during COVID, our fiscal agent was a local entity that was a great care provider but very new to handling fiscal responsibilities. This resulted in challenges with staff pay, invoicing to the state, and paperwork submission. When Trailhead stepped in, they truly worked miracles in providing administrative support from state-related matters to internal coalition needs. We honestly can’t even speak to what is it exactly that they do, they’re just busy doing it. You don’t feel like you’re working with a company, you feel like you’re working with actual people, and that makes a huge difference.