⚙ DEMO ENVIRONMENT — Fictional data only. Resets nightly. View as: Facility Partner Exit Demo

Coordinating Body Guide

For ESF-8, NACHC, NAFC, ASTHO, state health departments, regional healthcare coalitions, and similar observers.

This guide is for organizations that watch and help facilitate response without claiming needs or delivering resources themselves. If your team also delivers resources, see the Partner Guide instead.
Access levels

Coordinating bodies engage with the Hub at three tiers. Pick the one that matches your role and authority.

Tier 1 - Public

No login. The public map at healthresponse.us/hub shows non-sensitive situational reports, the public situational summary, and aggregated incident markers. Anyone can view.

Tier 2 - Observer login

Login granted by HRA. Adds visibility into facility status counts by region, partner deployment status, and the document library at the partners access level. No identifying facility details. Useful for ESF-8 desks and HCC duty officers.

Tier 3 - Full operational

Login granted by HRA after a data-sharing review. Adds named facility and partner detail. Reserved for entities with a documented operational role in the response (state DOH during a declared incident, FEMA ESF-8 lead, NACHC during a federally declared health emergency).

Reading the public map

The map at /hub runs on Ushahidi. Each marker is a situational report submitted by a facility or HRA staff and approved for public release.

  1. Use the category filter (left rail) to narrow to specific report types - infrastructure, supply, access, capacity.
  2. Use the date slider to scope to a window. Default is the last 7 days.
  3. Click a marker for the report card. Reports include narrative, optional photo, location, and timestamp.

The map is intentionally lossy: it shows the shape of the operating picture, not facility-by-facility detail. For detail, use tier 2 or 3 access.

Situational summaries

HRA publishes a situational summary twice daily (10am and 10pm Eastern). The summary blends FEMA disaster declarations, credible public-health RSS feeds, and aggregated platform activity.

  • The summary appears on the landing page at healthresponse.us. No login needed.
  • It is timestamped so you can confirm freshness before quoting.
  • During steady-state (no declared incident), the morning summary still publishes but is shorter.

To receive the summary by email, contact [email protected]. A mailing list is in pilot.

Reading the operational picture (tier 2+)

Observer dashboards show four panels.

Facility status counts

How many facilities in a region are Fully Open, Open with Limitations, Closed, or Unknown. Trend arrows show change since the last operational period. Names are masked unless you have tier 3.

Need volume and matching

Open, partly matched, fully matched, and fulfilled counts by category. A persistent gap between open and matched in a category signals a capability shortfall worth raising at the next interagency call.

Partner deployment

How many vetted partners are Monitoring, Mobilizing, Deployed, Demobilizing, or Recovery. The shape of this curve is a leading indicator of response saturation.

Incident timeline

Major events by hour: incident declarations, status changes, large requests submitted, large matches completed. Useful for situational reporting.

Public vs. confidential data

The Hub deliberately separates what is shareable from what is operational.

  • No PII. Patient data never appears on the platform.
  • Public - situational summaries, approved map reports, aggregate counts. Quotable in external briefings.
  • Partners / Observer - regional rollups, partner activity counts. Internal use; not for press.
  • Operational - named facility status, named partner claims. For named coordinating entities with a documented role; do not redistribute.

When in doubt, treat anything beyond the public summary as restricted and check with HRA before sharing externally.

Working with HRA during an incident
  1. HRA opens a partner channel at incident declaration. Coordinating bodies are added by named contact.
  2. HRA runs an interagency call cadence - typically twice daily during active response, daily during sustained response.
  3. Send a representative to the call who can speak for your organization's posture. Reading-only attendance is welcome but limits your influence on resource decisions.
  4. Use the situational summary as your shared starting point so calls focus on decisions, not status.

To be added to the next incident's partner channel, email [email protected] with your name, organization, role, and after-hours phone.

Common coordinator questions
How fresh is the data on the map?
Each marker shows its own timestamp. The aggregate situational summary timestamp is on the landing page. During active response, expect updates every 1 to 4 hours; in steady-state, daily.
Can I download the map data for my own briefings?
Public map reports are exportable as GeoJSON or CSV from the map toolbar (tier 1+). Aggregated counts are exportable from the observer dashboard (tier 2+). Named facility detail is not exportable.
Can you give me read-only access for our duty officer?
Yes. Email HRA with the role (not the individual). Duty-officer accounts are pooled and rotate with the desk, with their own audit trail.
How do I cite the Hub in an external report?
"Health Response Alliance, Health Response Hub, accessed [date]." Quote the situational summary timestamp directly. Do not screenshot tier 2 or 3 dashboards without HRA review.

More troubleshooting

Still stuck? Email [email protected]. HRA staff respond within four hours during business hours, faster during a declared incident.
Page last updated May 14, 2026

The Health Response Hub works offline and can be installed like a native app on any phone, tablet, or computer — no app store required.

Install on your phone

iPhone / iPad: Open healthresponse.us in Safari → tap the Share button (box with arrow) → tap Add to Home Screen → tap Add. The Hub appears as an app icon.

Android: Open healthresponse.us in Chrome → tap the three-dot menu → tap Add to Home Screen or Install app. Chrome may also show a banner at the bottom.

Desktop (Chrome or Edge): Look for the install icon (+ in a circle) in the address bar → click it → click Install.

What works without internet
  • Any dashboard or page you have recently visited
  • The open needs list and request details
  • Your facility dashboard and active requests
  • Help pages and documents
Submitting forms when offline

If you submit a resource request, status update, or claim while offline, the Hub saves it automatically and uploads it the moment your connection returns — even if the app is closed. A red notification badge on the Help button and a purple bar at the bottom of the screen show how many items are waiting to sync.

Tips for field use
  • Load your dashboard before going into a low-connectivity area — it will stay available
  • The live map tiles may not load offline, but facility data you have viewed will
  • Log in before going offline — your session stays active for 24 hours
  • If a sync fails repeatedly, tap Try again on the offline page or reload when connected