Gov. Gavin Newsom signed earthquake retrofit requirements into law, and the legislation allows some hospitals to ask for a deadline extension, the Los Angeles Times reported Oct. 9.
1. The debate over earthquake requirements for California hospitals began in 1971 when the Sylmar quake near Los Angeles prompted a new law that required new hospitals to be built to withstand an earthquake and continue operating. In 1994, after a 6.7 Northridge quake, lawmakers required existing facilities to be upgraded by 2030.
2. More than 674 buildings across 251 licensed hospitals do not meet the second set of standards. Hospitals have lobbied the government to give a five-year extension, but that was vetoed by Mr. Newsom in September. In his veto message, he wrote that a blanket five-year extension wasn't justified and any extension approved should be limited, granted on a case-by-case basis and require hospitals to demonstrate need and a clear path to compliance.
"They've had 30 years to do this," Cathy Kennedy, a nurse and president of the California Nurses Association, told the Times. "We are kicking the can down the road year after year, and unfortunately, lives are going to be lost."
3. Recently, Mr. Newsom signed a bill that allows small, rural or "distressed" hospitals to receive up to a three-year extension. The rest will be required to meet the standards by 2030.
"While hospitals are working to meet these requirements, many will simply not make the 2030 deadline and be forced by state law to close," Carmela Coyle, president and chief executive of the California Hospital Association, wrote in a letter to Mr. Newsom before he vetoed the CHA bill.
4. A 2019 Rand Corp. study estimated that the average cost to retrofit a hospital would be more than $92 million per building. It could amount to $34 billion to $143 billion in costs across the state.
"It's an expensive thing and a complicated thing for hospitals — independent hospitals in particular," Elizabeth Mahler, MD, an associate chief medical officer for Oakland, Calif.-based Alameda Health System, told the Times. Alameda is undertaking a $25 million retrofit of its hospital.
5. Small and rural hospitals can seek aid from the state through grants financed by the California Electronic Cigarette Excise Tax; however, that fund yields only about $2 million to $3 million total annually. The Small and Rural Hospital Relief Program received a onetime infusion of $50 million from a tax on health insurers that can be used for seismic work, Andrew DiLuccia, spokesperson for the Department of Health Care Access and Information, told the Times.