Hospital Seismic Safety: I Need An Extension, Please!

Hospital seismic safety, redux:

I know you're all busy reporting on swine flu and health reform, but California reporters should take a a new look at hospital seismic safety. This is a never-ending, sometimes boring, but really important health policy issue in California.

Here's a 60-second recap: A 1994 state law, passed after the 6.7 Northridge quake in California's San Fernando Valley, toughened up 1973 legislation requiring hospitals in danger of collapse or significant damage after an earthquake to make repairs, rebuild - or face closure. The new deadline was set for 2008. But the state's powerful hospital lobby, citing high construction costs, successfully delayed many of the retrofitting requirements from 2013 to as late as 2030. Critics argued that the extensions could compromise public safety in a disaster.

Now, as the Sacramento Bee's Bobby Caina Calvan recently reported, the hospital lobby is asking for yet another extension, citing the dismal economy.

He writes:

The California Hospital Association, which represents 430 hospitals statewide, is asking the Legislature to throw out the 2013 mandate and push up the 2030 deadline to replace at-risk buildings to 2020.

"Rather than pouring money into this twice, what we're saying is that this will allow hospitals to just use one set of capital investment. It's more cost-effective," said Jan Emerson, the association's spokeswoman.

The request is expected to be written into Senate Bill 289, which seeks to get a clearer scope of the community impact that could be brought about by closing hospitals that don't meet the seismic deadlines.

When I wrote about this issue some months back, here's what I suggested:

Reporters should check in with the he California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD), and ask about the status of hospitals in your area. Then talk with hospitals' leaders. If they're trying to get an extension for seismic retrofitting work they've had 15 years or more to plan for, why? How is the economic downturn affecting retrofitting or rebuilding plans? A nice news peg is the July 1, 2009 application deadline for a HAZUS analysis. Is your hospital applying for a HAZUS analysis? Why or why not?

Now comes a new link to make your reporting even easier: OSHPD has conveniently put every hospital's request for a HAZUS analysis in a very recently updated document on its website. What's even better: in the 20-page document are the most current HAZUS building ratings (they were up-to-date as of Sept. 2, 2009): SPC-1 means that they need to make their changes by 2013; SPC-2 means they have to make their changes by 2030. For example, it's not exactly comforting to know that Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, near Los Angeles, has a SPC-1 "nursery addition" building (where babies are born or cared for?) that's considered to be a high risk of damage or collapse in a serious earthquake.

The document is in PDF format, but it would be easy to download into Excel or ask OSHPD to give you the document in Excel format. Then you can do some fun number crunching. Who's the latest to ask for a HAZUS review? What hospitals have been downgraded to SPC-2, allowing them to delay retrofits or rebuilding until the 2030 deadline? What hospitals are considered SPC-1, giving them only until 2013 for major changes? To be sure, many hospitals have major seismic retrofitting, if not outright rebuilding programs, underway. But others have delayed action.

Have I missed any good reporting on seismic safety? Share your thoughts in the comments below. You need to be a registered member of Center for Health Journalism Digital to leave a comment, so if you haven't joined yet, click here. It's easy, quick and free.