diff --git a/health/healthcheck.py b/health/healthcheck.py
index ef700e3e4..bd0ff0703 100644
--- a/health/healthcheck.py
+++ b/health/healthcheck.py
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ class HealthCheck(object):
     parameters = app.config['HEALTH_CHECKER'][1] or {}
 
     for subc in cls.__subclasses__():
-      if subc.check_name() == name:
+      if name in subc.check_names():
         return subc(app, config_provider, **parameters)
 
     raise Exception('Unknown health check with name %s' % name)
@@ -75,20 +75,22 @@ class HealthCheck(object):
 
 class LocalHealthCheck(HealthCheck):
   @classmethod
-  def check_name(cls):
-    return 'LocalHealthCheck'
+  def check_names(cls):
+    return ['LocalHealthCheck']
 
 
-class ProductionHealthCheck(HealthCheck):
-  def __init__(self, app, config_provider, access_key, secret_key, db_instance='quay'):
-    super(ProductionHealthCheck, self).__init__(app, config_provider, ['redis'])
+class RDSAwareHealthCheck(HealthCheck):
+  def __init__(self, app, config_provider, access_key, secret_key, db_instance='quay',
+               region='us-east-1'):
+    super(RDSAwareHealthCheck, self).__init__(app, config_provider, ['redis'])
     self.access_key = access_key
     self.secret_key = secret_key
     self.db_instance = db_instance
+    self.region = region
 
   @classmethod
-  def check_name(cls):
-    return 'ProductionHealthCheck'
+  def check_names(cls):
+    return ['RDSAwareHealthCheck', 'ProductionHealthCheck']
 
   def get_instance_health(self, service_statuses):
     # Note: We skip the redis check because if redis is down, we don't want ELB taking the
@@ -115,8 +117,9 @@ class ProductionHealthCheck(HealthCheck):
   def _get_rds_status(self):
     """ Returns the status of the RDS instance as reported by AWS. """
     try:
-      region = boto.rds2.connect_to_region('us-east-1',
-        aws_access_key_id=self.access_key, aws_secret_access_key=self.secret_key)
+      region = boto.rds2.connect_to_region(self.region, aws_access_key_id=self.access_key,
+                                           aws_secret_access_key=self.secret_key)
+
       response = region.describe_db_instances()['DescribeDBInstancesResponse']
       result = response['DescribeDBInstancesResult']
       instances = [i for i in result['DBInstances'] if i['DBInstanceIdentifier'] == self.db_instance]