diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index eada2f9e..a772273f 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ before_script:
   - sudo service postgresql stop
   - while sudo lsof -Pi :5432 -sTCP:LISTEN -t; do sleep 1; done
   - docker-compose up -d
-  - bash -c 'while [[ "$(curl --insecure -s -o /dev/null -w ''%{http_code}'' http://localhost:8000/healthcheck)" != "200" ]]; do sleep 10 && docker logs cccatalog-api_web_1; done'
+  - bash -c 'while [[ "$(curl --insecure -s -o /dev/null http://localhost:8000/healthcheck | jq '.error')" != "IndexMissing" ]] || [[ "$(curl --insecure -s -o /dev/null -w ''%{http_code}'' http://localhost:8000/healthcheck)" != "200" ]]; do sleep 10 && docker logs cccatalog-api_web_1; done'
   - ./load_sample_data.sh
   - bash -c 'while [[ "$(curl --insecure -s -o /dev/null -w ''%{http_code}'' http://localhost:8000/v1/images?q=test)" != "200" ]]; do sleep 5; done'
 script:
diff --git a/cccatalog-api/cccatalog/api/views/site_views.py b/cccatalog-api/cccatalog/api/views/site_views.py
index c2ca426e..8c934ca9 100644
--- a/cccatalog-api/cccatalog/api/views/site_views.py
+++ b/cccatalog-api/cccatalog/api/views/site_views.py
@@ -26,13 +26,14 @@
 FILTER = 'filter_content'
 URL = 'domain_name'
 HEALTH_CACHE_TTL = 10
+ALLOWED_INDEX_STATUSES = ['green','yellow']
 
 
 @method_decorator(cache_page(HEALTH_CACHE_TTL), name='get')
 class HealthCheck(APIView):
     """
     Returns a `200 OK` response if the server is running and `image` 
-    index exists and a `500 Internal Server Error` if either of the condition fails.
+    index is healthy and a `500 Internal Server Error` if either of the condition fails.
 
     This endpoint is used in production to ensure that the server should receive
     traffic. If no response is provided, the server is deregistered from the
@@ -42,12 +43,21 @@ class HealthCheck(APIView):
 
     def get(self, request, format=None):
         es_conn = es
-        image_index_exists = es_conn.indices.exists(index=["image"])
+        image_index_exists = es_conn.indices.exists(index=['image'])
         if image_index_exists:
-            return Response('', status=200)
+            health_check = es_conn.cluster.health(index='image')
+            index_status = health_check.get("status")
+            if index_status not in ALLOWED_INDEX_STATUSES:
+                log.error('The health check failed because the status of the image index is unhealthy.')
+                response_data = {"error": "IndexUnhealthy", "detail": "The status of the image index is unhealthy."}
+                return Response(response_data, status=500)
+            else:
+                return Response(health_check, status=200)
         else:
-            log.error('The health check failed because the cluster image index is either unhealthy or non-existent')
-            return Response('', status=500)
+            response_data = {"error": "IndexMissing", "detail": "The image index does not exist. Index data to Elasticsearch."}
+            log.error('The health check failed because the cluster image index is non-existent')
+            return Response(response_data, status=500)
+        
     
 
 class AboutImageResponse(serializers.Serializer):
diff --git a/ingestion_server/Dockerfile b/ingestion_server/Dockerfile
index 104fed96..abde9e42 100644
--- a/ingestion_server/Dockerfile
+++ b/ingestion_server/Dockerfile
@@ -26,3 +26,17 @@ RUN pipenv install --deploy --system --dev
 USER supervisord
 EXPOSE 8001
 CMD ["supervisord", "-c", "/ingestion_server/config/supervisord.conf"]
+
+# Install the jq tool to filter JSON data 
+ENV JQ_VERSION='1.5'
+
+RUN wget --no-check-certificate https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stedolan/jq/master/sig/jq-release.key -O /tmp/jq-release.key && \
+    wget --no-check-certificate https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stedolan/jq/master/sig/v${JQ_VERSION}/jq-linux64.asc -O /tmp/jq-linux64.asc && \
+    wget --no-check-certificate https://github.com/stedolan/jq/releases/download/jq-${JQ_VERSION}/jq-linux64 -O /tmp/jq-linux64 && \
+    gpg --import /tmp/jq-release.key && \
+    gpg --verify /tmp/jq-linux64.asc /tmp/jq-linux64 && \
+    cp /tmp/jq-linux64 /usr/bin/jq && \
+    chmod +x /usr/bin/jq && \
+    rm -f /tmp/jq-release.key && \
+    rm -f /tmp/jq-linux64.asc && \
+    rm -f /tmp/jq-linux64
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