Situational awareness: As Virginia is under a winter storm watch for the weekend with the storm expected to bring heavy snow and ice impacts across much of the state, we want to remind you to:

• review your emergency preparedness plans and activate them as necessary to protect residents and staff; and
• as needed, update your facility’s status in Virginia Healthcare Alerting and Status System (VHASS).

For the latest forecast: The National Weather Service (NWS) will provide updated briefings on this storm each day at 9:00 am and 3:30 pm.

• You can also stay informed on the latest storm updates, its projected path and timing of the storm for your specific area, by visiting the NWS website and entering your zip code in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

Visit VHCA-VCAL’s emergency preparedness webpages for links and information for nursing facilities and assisted living facilities including:

• Reporting power outages.
• Communicating with residents and families.
• The Virginia Long Term Care Mutual Aid Plan (LTC-MAP) is used to coordinate and manage requests for assistance when one or more LTC facilities are faced with an incident that exceeds their ability to manage the event independently.
• VHASS, the free, web-based system designed to distribute critical emergency management information needed by Virginia’s healthcare providers. 

In the event you must activate your emergency preparedness plan to protect residents and staff, it is imperative that all are familiar with the plan and ready to put it in action appropriately.

Additional emergency preparedness tips

• Plan times for providing regular updates to your residents, families, and staff.
• Keep your emergency plan accessible, organized, and clearly labeled.
• If you need to activate the LTC-MAP for your center, call your designated Regional Healthcare Coalition contact to request the resources you need:

Central Virginia Healthcare Coalition

• Primary Contact: David Calkins | dcalkins@vhha.com
• RHCC (Emergencies Only): 800‑276‑0683

Eastern Virginia Healthcare Coalition

• Primary Contact: Spence Campbell | wcampbell@vhha.com
• RHCC (Emergencies Only): 844‑757‑7422

Northern Virginia Emergency Response System

• Primary Contact: Kristin Nickerson | nickerson@nvers.org
• RHCC (Emergencies Only): 888‑987‑7422

Southwest Virginia Healthcare Coalition

• Primary Contact: Mary Kathryn Alley | malley@vhha.com
• RHCC (Emergencies Only): 866‑679‑7422

Check out the resources from the VLIPP Emergency Preparedness and Response Webinars. Resources from the 2023 webinars cover:

• Extreme Weather/HVAC Failure
• Flooding
• Hurricane – Before, During, and After
• Loss of Communication Systems

Quick Links

• CMS Webpage on Emergency Preparedness Rule
• Virginia Department of Emergency Management
• Ready.gov