A California nurses association is urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to veto a bill that would delay earthquake safety standards for hospitals.
SB 1432, if signed into law, would allow hospitals to delay meeting seismic compliance deadlines by an additional five years. The delay would exacerbate health inequity in the state, National Nurses United said in a Sept. 4 news release. Currently, 1 in 4 hospitals would need to be evacuated and closed after a major earthquake, and "most likely will never open again," the release said.
"Lawmakers are gambling with our lives by letting hospitals off the hook from complying with earthquake safety requirements without delay," Michelle Vo, RN, president of California Nurses Association, said in the release. "Hospitals have had more than 30 years, an entire generation, to make our hospitals … safe for workers and the public. The industry management executives have recklessly failed to prioritize investment in necessary seismic upgrades that are critical to protect our patients and community in the event of an emergency.”
The California Hospital Association requested the governor refocus seismic safety requirements to only "emergency" services and give hospitals until 2030 to meet the standards.
"As a result of lessons of the past year, it's time for state lawmakers to take a fresh look at a 1990s-era state law that will both impose billions of dollars of costs on hospitals and — if not modified — will result in hospital closures across the state," the hospital association said.