Full Hospital Quake Compliance Nears
California's hospitals have made huge strides in updating their infrastructure to be compliant with seismic regulations, data released last week show.
According to figures issued by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHD), nearly 91 percent of the 2,976 acute care hospital-operated buildings are now seismically compliant.
That's a far cry from 2002, when the agency declared that more than 1,300 buildings – or about 45% – needed upgrading or replacement.
As of last week, OSHPD said 2,706 acute care buildings are now compliant, with 270 buildings at 107 hospital sites in the midst of being upgraded. OSHPD said it expects those structures to be compliant with seismic regulations by 2020.
“California has made tremendous strides in improving the seismic safety of its hospitals for patients, staff, and visitors," said Robert P. David, the OSHPD director. "OSHPD is committed to ensuring earthquake safe acute care facilities that can continue to function to provide quality health care to Californians during and after an earthquake."
Seismic upgrades of hospitals have been an issue in California since shortly after the 1994 Northridge earthquake in suburban Los Angeles. The quake led to the closure of five hospitals and the evacuations of several others.
Later that year, SB 1953 was passed into law requiring hospitals to upgrade their structures most at risk in a temblor by 2013. The deadlines have been extended several times over the years from 2013 to 2016 to now 2020, depending on how the structure is used.
The hospital sector has grumbled about the law over the years, saying it equates to an unfunded mandate that could top $110 billion by the time all work has been completed. The seismic regulations and the rising cost of building materials meant construction costs topped $2 million per bed in many cases. During the Great Recession, when lending standards became especially stringent, hospital executives also expressed anxieties about being able to finance their projects.
Nevertheless, the building boom in California has led to some spectacular new facilities brimming with high-tech gadgetry, including the UC San Francisco Hospital's Mission Bay campus, El Camino Hospital in Mountain View and the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.
“Hospitals throughout California have spent and continue to spend billions of dollars to bring all of their buildings into compliance with the state’s seismic compliance requirements. CHA has always supported the public policy goal of the seismic law,” said Jan Emerson-Shea, vice president of communications for the California Hospital Association.
The projects still underway range in value from a few hundred thousand dollars to nearly $1 billion. Many of the biggest upgrade projects that are currently in the works are in Northern California.
California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco is leading the pack, with projects underway that are valued at $911 million, according to OSHPD data. A spokesperson with California Pacific, which is owned by Sacramento-based Sutter Health, said that by 2019 it would have opened new buildings at its campuses on Van Ness Avenue and Geary Boulevard, and a replacement campus for St. Luke's Medical Center. San Francisco General Hospital has $672.5 million worth of buildings under construction, including a replacement hospital. That facility is scheduled to be open by spring of next year.
Further down the peninsula, Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto is undertaking $606.9 million worth of work, including an expansion of the current facility.
Sutter is also undertaking a large project in the state capital. Sutter Medical Center Sacramento is undertaking projects valued at $361.9 million, including a new women and children's facility.
In Southern California, Loma Linda University Medical Center is undertaking projects valued at $653.4 million, although most are currently in the review process. They would include a replacement hospital, records show.
In San Diego County, Kaiser Permanente is undertaking work valued at $500.2 million, including construction of a new hospital in San Diego.
