Emergency Preparedness and Response

MayBe Prepared

Sign up for ArapAlert (Codered), Arapahoe County's emergency alert notifications. When the county issues a message about a potential safety hazard or concern, messages will be sent to all standard voice and text communication devices  that you have registered in the system. The system will continue trying to contact you on these devices until it receives a confirmation from you that the message has been received.

For additional help preparing for an emergency, refer to information from the County's Office of Emergency Management (OEM).

Making a Plan

Build a Safety Kit

How Arapahoe County Public Health is Prepared

We work very closely with a wide variety of partners including hospitals, coroners, behavioral health, first responders, emergency managers, community clinics, volunteer groups, and local public health partners to align emergency preparedness efforts across municipal and county boundaries. 

Health Alert Network (HAN)

The Health Alert Network (HAN) provides a method of sharing information about urgent public health incidents with local partners. The HAN provides a robust interoperable platform for the rapid distribution of public health information.

There are several HAN classification levels as defined by the CDC which are used to classify messages and the urgency of the message. Each HAN classification level is clearly stated at the beginning of each communication. This is to aid in quick identification and differentiation of HAN messages from other types of communications.

These categories are listed below:

  1. HAN Alert—conveys the highest level of importance, warrants immediate action
  2. HAN Advisory—provides important information for a specific incident, may not require immediate action
  3. HAN Update—provides updated information regarding an incident or situation, unlikely to require immediate action
  4. HAN Public Health Brief—For your information, does not require action
  5. HAN Test/Exercise/Drill—used during system tests
For questions or if you would like to sign up to receive HAN communications, please register or sign in on the Colorado Notification System page.

HAN Advisories

Healthcare Coalition

As part of the larger North Central Region (NCR) Healthcare Coalition (HCC), the EPR Healthcare Coalition Chapter exists to support and advance health and medical preparedness, response, and recovery in Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas, and Elbert Counties. This group of hospitals, coroners, behavioral health, first responders, emergency managers, community clinics, volunteer groups, and local public health partners work to align emergency preparedness efforts across municipal and county boundaries.

Because of the efforts undertaken to more closely coordinate preparedness and response planning within the broader health and medical system, coalition members have been able to identify previously overlooked response partners, streamline systems to support response efforts, and coordinate the leveraging of limited resources. Arapahoe County Public Health partners with the other local health departments within the chapter to lead in facilitating coalition efforts, but the diverse and active coalition membership has validated the process and allowed efforts to progress beyond many expectations.

Moving forward, the Arapahoe County Health Department will look to the coalition to determine additional gaps in emergency preparedness and work with its partners to find the most effective and efficient way to meet those needs.

To learn more about the NCR Healthcare Coalition and the other chapters, or to access the member portal for meeting minutes, coalition documents, and other resources, please visit NCR Healthcare Coalition website.