Overview
History
BorderRAC was formed in 1992 and was officially recognized by the Texas Department of Health in 1994 as the Regional Advisory Council representing Trauma Service Area – I. The region consists of 3 counties in West Texas and 7 in Southern New Mexico with a combined population of approximately 1,200,000 and a land mass of 41,400 square miles.
The BorderRAC Emergency Preparedness and Response/ Healthcare Coalition was established in 2012. The BorderRAC EPR/HCC is comprised of representatives from 15 hospitals, 9 EMS agencies, 12 Emergency Management offices, 2 local health departments, and various other healthcare partners including long term care/rehabilitation facilities, home health agencies, hospice agencies, behavioral health facilities, dialysis and other health agencies.
Mission “The BorderRAC EPR/Healthcare Coalition was created with the mission of providing leadership, organization, and sustainability to the region’s healthcare preparedness and response activities, and to build upon individual healthcare organization preparedness by promoting ESF-8 activities.”
The BorderRAC EPR/ HCC’s primary focus is to support the regional healthcare systems response capability and capacity for emergency management planning, preparedness, and response. Some of the Healthcare Coalition’s specific areas of focus include:
• Development of the Regional Medical Operations Center for coordination of regional medical assets
• Education and preparedness training
• Development and participation in regional emergency/disaster exercises, evaluations, and corrective actions
• Development, implementation, and testing of interoperable and emergency communications
• Tracking of bed availability via EMResource and WebEOC for emergency and disasters
• Mass fatality management
• Medical evacuation and shelter-in-place plans
• Alternate care sites and utilization of mobile medical assets and pharmaceutical caches
• Continuity of operations plan for critical facilities and services
• Participation in Emergency Medical Task Force program
• Plan and coordinate the annual Bataan Memorial Death March Medical support
