SECTIONS 130000-130025 - California Statutes

HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE

SECTION 130000-130025

130000. (a) The Legislature hereby finds and declares the
following:
(1) The Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act
of 1983 was created because of the loss of life in the collapse of
hospitals during the Sylmar earthquake of 1971.
(2) We were reminded of the vulnerability of hospitals in the
Northridge earthquake of January 17, 1994.
(3) Several hospitals built prior to the act suffered major damage
and had to be evacuated.
(4) Hospitals built to the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities
Seismic Safety Act standards resisted the Northridge earthquakes with
very little structural damage demonstrating the value and necessity
of this act.
(5) Both pre- and post-act hospitals suffered damage to
architecture and to power and water systems that prevented hospitals
from being operational, caused the loss of one life, triggered
evacuations, unacceptable property losses, and added additional
concerns on emergency medical response.
(6) An earthquake survivability inventory of California's
hospitals completed by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and
Development in December 1989 indicated that over 83 percent of the
state's hospital beds were in buildings that did not comply with the
Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act because they
were issued permits prior to the effective date of the act.
Furthermore, 26 percent of the beds are in buildings posing
significant risks of collapse since they were built before modern
earthquake codes. The older hospitals pose significant threats of
collapse in major earthquakes and loss of functions in smaller or
more distant earthquakes.
(7) The 1989 survey also states: "Of the 490 hospitals surveyed,
nine hospitals are in Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Rupture Zones,
31 are in areas subject to soil liquefaction, 14 in areas with
landslide potential, 33 in flood zones, and 29 have a possible loss
or disruption of access. Two hundred five hospitals had no emergency
fuel for their main boilers on hand, 19 had no emergency fuel for
their emergency generators. Onsite emergency potable water was
available at 273 hospitals and nonpotable water was available at 102
hospitals. Four hundred eighteen hospitals had emergency radios
onsite, and 419 hospitals had inadequate or partially adequate
equipment anchorage. In terms of available emergency preparedness,
inadequate or partially inadequate equipment anchorage is still the
most widespread shortcoming."
(8) This survey identifies many of the shortcomings that caused 23
hospitals to suspend some or all operations after the Northridge
earthquake. However, one hospital was rebuilt to comply with the
Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act after an
older hospital building had partially collapsed in the 1971 Sylmar
earthquake. The rebuilt hospital suffered failures in water
distribution systems and had to be evacuated.
(9) The state must rely on hospitals to support patients and offer
medical aid to earthquake victims.
(b) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature, that:
(1) By enacting this article, the state shall take steps to ensure
that the expected earthquake performance of hospital buildings
housing inpatients and providing primary basic services is disclosed
to public agencies that have a need and a right to know, because the
medical industry cannot immediately bring all hospital buildings into
compliance with the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic
Safety Act.
(2) The state shall encourage structural retrofits or replacements
of hospital buildings housing inpatients and providing primary basic
services that place lives at risk because of their potential for
collapse during an earthquake.
(3) The state shall also encourage retrofits and enhancements to
critical hospital architecture, equipment, and utility and
communications systems to improve the ability of hospitals to remain
operational for those hospitals that do not pose risk to life.

130005. By June 30, 1996:
(a) The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development,
hereinafter called the office, shall develop definitions of
earthquake performance categories for earthquake ground motions for
both new and existing hospitals that are:
(1) Reasonably capable of providing services to the public after a
disaster, designed and constructed to resist, insofar as practical,
the forces generated by earthquakes, gravity, and winds, and in full
compliance with the regulations and standards developed by the office
pursuant to the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety
Act.
(2) In substantial compliance with the pre-1973 California
Building Standards Codes, but not in substantial compliance with the
regulations and standards developed by the office pursuant to the
Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act. These
buildings may not be repairable or functional but will not
significantly jeopardize life.
(3) Potentially at significant risk of collapse and that represent
a danger to the public.
(b) The office may define other earthquake performance categories
as it deems necessary to meet the intent of this article and the
Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act.
(c) Earthquake performance categories shall also include
subgradations for risk to life, structural soundness, building
contents, and nonstructural systems that are critical to providing
basic services to hospital inpatients and the public after a
disaster.
(d) Earthquake performance categories shall, as far as
practicable, use language consistent with definitions and concepts as
developed in the model codes and other state and federal agencies.
Where the office finds that deviations from other's definitions and
concepts are necessary and warranted to comply with the intent of the
Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act, the act
that added this article, or the specific nature or functions of
hospitals, the office shall provide supporting documentation that
justifies these differences.
(e) Insofar as practicable, the office shall define rapid seismic
evaluation procedures that will allow owners to determine with
reasonable certainty the existing applicable earthquake performance
categories and the minimum acceptable earthquake performance
categories for hospital buildings. These procedures shall allow for
abbreviated analysis when known vulnerability is clear and when
construction in accordance with post-1973 codes allows for an
evaluation focusing on limited structural and nonstructural elements.
(f) The office, in consultation with the Hospital Building Safety
Board, shall develop regulations to identify the most critical
nonstructural systems and to prioritize the timeframes for upgrading
those systems that represent the greatest risk of failure during an
earthquake.
(g) The office shall develop regulations as they apply to the
administration of seismic standards for retrofit designs,
construction, and field reviews for the purposes of this article.
(h) The office shall develop regulations for the purpose of
reviewing requests and granting delays to hospitals demonstrating a
need for more time to comply with Section 130060.
(i) The office shall submit all information developed pursuant to
subdivisions (a) to (f), inclusive, to the California Building
Standards Commission by June 30, 1996.
(j) The office shall submit all information developed pursuant to
subdivisions (g) and (h) to the California Building Standards
Commission by December 31, 1996.
(k) "Hospital building," as used in Article 8 and Article 9 of
this chapter means a hospital building as defined in Section 129725
and that is also licensed pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section
1250, but does not include these buildings if the beds licensed
pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 1250, as of January 1, 1995,
comprise 10 percent or less of the total licensed beds of the total
physical plant, and does not include facilities owned or operated, or
both, by the Department of Corrections.

130010. The office is responsible for reviewing and approving
seismic evaluation reports, compliance schedules and construction
documents that are developed by hospital owners, and field review of
construction for work done pursuant to this article.

130020. (a) By December 31, 1996, the California Building Standards
Commission shall review, revise as necessary and adopt earthquake
performance categories, seismic evaluation procedures, and standards
and timeframes for upgrading the most critical nonstructural systems
as developed by the office. By June 30, 1997, the California Building
Standards Commission shall review, revise as necessary, and adopt
seismic retrofit building standards and procedures for reviewing
requests and granting delays to hospitals that demonstrate a need for
more time to comply with Section 130060.
(b) For purposes of this section all submittals made by the office
pursuant to subdivisions (i) and (j) of Section 130005 shall be
deemed as emergency regulations and adopted as such.

130022. (a) The office may utilize current computer modeling based
upon software developed by FEMA, referred to as Hazards US, for the
purpose of determining the structural performance category of general
acute care hospital buildings. The office may promulgate regulations
to implement this section.
(b) Regulatory submissions made by the office to the California
Building Standards Commission either pursuant to subdivision (a) or
for purposes of implementing conforming changes in deadlines for
compliance with any nonstructural performance category requirements
shall be deemed to be emergency regulations and shall be adopted as
such.
(c) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2013, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2013, deletes or extends
that date.

130025. (a) In the event of a seismic event, or other natural or
manmade calamity that the office believes is of a magnitude so that
it may have compromised the structural integrity of a hospital
building, or any major system of a hospital building, the office
shall send one or more authorized representatives to examine the
structure or system. "System" for these purposes shall include, but
not be limited to, the electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and fire and
life safety system of the hospital building. If, in the opinion of
the office, the structural integrity of the hospital building or any
system has been compromised and damaged to a degree that the hospital
building has been made unsafe to occupy, the office may cause to be
placed on the hospital building either a red tag, a yellow tag, or a
green tag.
(b) A "red" tag shall mean the hospital building is unsafe and
shall be evacuated immediately. Access to red-tagged buildings shall
be restricted to persons authorized by the office to enter.
(c) A "yellow" tag shall mean that the hospital building has been
authorized for limited occupancy, and the authorized representative
of the office shall write directly on the yellow tag that portion of
the hospital building that may be entered with or without restriction
and those portions that may not.
(d) A "green" tag shall mean the hospital building and all of its
systems have been inspected by an authorized agent of the office, and
have been found to be safe for use and occupancy.
(e) Any law enforcement or other public safety agency of this
state shall grant access to hospital buildings by authorized
representatives of the office upon the showing of appropriate
credentials.
(f) For purposes of this section, "hospital building" includes the
buildings referred to in paragraphs (2) and (3) of subdivision (b)
of Section 129725.