ABOUT SDHCC

PURPOSE

The purpose of the South Dakota Health Care Coalition is to bring public, private, and non-profit organizations together for the purpose of collaborative disaster medical health planning and training. 

VISION

To develop the gold standard of coalition readiness by embracing new partners and creating a resilient response community which share the common goal of protecting the lives of all South Dakotans.
 

MISSION

To build and facilitate comprehensive preparedness and response capabilities across the state of South Dakota that support the National Preparedness Goals by engaging healthcare partners in collaboration, communication, and coordination resulting in a strong and sustainable response system across the state.

PARTNERS IN PREPAREDNESS

Initially formed in 2002, The South Dakota Health Care Coalition (SDHCC) was formed to coordinate statewide healthcare preparedness and response processes as directed by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), and the South Dakota Department of Health (SD DOH).

The SDHCC reviews and plans strategically to meet federal preparedness performance measures set forth by ASPR, working closely with the SD DOH in that mission. In 2019, the SDHCC became a 501c3 organization and is funded through a sub-recipient agreement function by the SD DOH. SDHCC partners include hospitals and healthcare facilities, long-term care facilities, clinics, rural health providers, emergency management agencies, fire, and EMS agencies, and many others.

SDHCC partners also include numerous response organizations such as the SD Emergency Management Association (SDEMA), SD EMT Association (SDEMTA), SD Ambulance Association (SDAA), SD Association of Healthcare Organizations (SDAHO), and SD Healthcare Association (SDHCA).  

SDHCC COALITION CHAPTERS

The SDHCC is divided into four chapters and governed by a board of directors. Each chapter has its own governance that elects 4 representatives to the board, two of which are the chair and co-chair of their chapter. These 16 representatives make up the voting members of the board with the President acting as the 17th voting member and tie-breaker. Board members work together to develop a strategic plan designed to enhance the resiliency of healthcare systems based on ASPR performance measures and the needs of each chapter based on its annual risk assessment and after-action reviews of incidents and exercises. Each chapter also includes a representative from the SD DOH. These DOH representatives are included on the board as non-voting members. The board also invites subject matter experts (SMEs) to meetings on an as-needed basis.

Chapters represent specific percentages of the state population and as follows:

  • Black Hills Chapter (Formerly Region 1) - 26%

  • Glacial Lakes Chapter (Formerly Region 2) - 18%

  • Sioux Empire Chapter (Formerly Region 3) - 40%

  • South Central Plains Chapter (Formerly Region 4) - 16%

SDHCC CORE VALUES

  • The SDHCC is focused on ensuring that healthcare response operations across the state of SD remain functionally and structurally sound during incident response.

  • The SDHCC strives to become the gold standard of healthcare coalitions, continuing to develop new and more effective initiatives to enhance the organizational response process.

  • SDHCC members are highly engaged, dedicated, and deeply focused on the success of the coalition and its partners, working to guarantee the safety of all.

  • The SDHCC collaborates with numerous stakeholders to ensure the development of effective and efficient training, exercise, and response planning.

  • The SDHCC works with partners in an honest and straightforward fashion, ensuring the needs of all are met.

  • The SDHCC strives to create opportunities to ensure that partners with special needs, as well as vulnerable and underserved populations are supported in its work.

  • The SDHCC is focused on creating the highest quality response initiatives, maintaining operational capabilities in support of its partners.

During the planning process, the SDHCC hosts multiple training sessions in a variety of subjects, conducts exercises, communications drills, bed availability updates, and testing of its incident command software. The SDHCC holds regular meetings with its chapters to provide updated information on planning, training, and potential threats. The SDHCC coordinates closely with the SD DOH on numerous projects including the facilitation of the federal Medical Response and Surge Exercise (MRSE) and facilitates annual coalition-wide risk assessments both compliant with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Joint Commission, NFPA 1600, as well as the requirements of the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA), which requires an annual Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA). 

The SDHCC is a National Incident Management System (NIMS) compliant organization. During crisis response, the SDHCC activates an area command to support healthcare operations in coordination with SD DOH and other partners who have a primary mission in support of ESF-8. Using multiple response tools available to its area command, the SDHCC maintains situational awareness, identifies available beds, works with facilities to decompress large amounts of patients, and coordinates with EMS and other transportation agencies to assist in the relocation of patients. In addition, the SDHCC manages over a dozen supply caches across the state that are made available to responding partners.