California's hospitals are supposed to be performing structural seismic safety upgrades to make their buildings better able to stand thru the shaking of a major earthquake. The current seismic retrofit law, SB 1953, was passed after the 1994 Northridge quake damaged 23 hospitals. Hospitals are now required to upgrade buildings by 2013 or 2015 to comply with the law. There is a problem - little, if any, money to perform the work is available.
Seismic building standards are partially decided based upon what happened during the last major earthquake and how to prevent or reduce the damage from happening again. In 1971, the collapse of a hospital in Sylmar caused one death. In 1973, California implemented the first law requiring hospitals to meet specific seismic standards. From 1973 onward, new California hospitals met the new seismic code. In 1994, the Northridge quake damaged 23 hospitals, which pointed out weaknesses in the 1973 seismic standard.A recent report by the California Hospital Association says an estimated $110 billion is needed for the work. Hospitals report that they have been unable to secure funding for the required work because of soft credit markets and falling revenues.
The solution - reclassify some of the buildings so seismic fixes can be put off until 2030. That is 36 years after the Northridge quake. The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) has used FEMA's HAZUS program to make the reclassifications. For hospitals not being reclassified using HAZUS, the deadline is extended until 2015 or 2020, 21 and 27 years after the Northridge quake.
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