Hospitals: seismic safety.

Existing law provides for the licensure of health facilities, including general acute care hospitals, by the State Department of Public Health. This bill would require an individual or entity, that seeks initial approval to operate or manage a general acute care hospital, to file with the department, and provide to other specified entities, a statement that describes the plan for the hospital to comply with the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act of 1983, as specified. This bill would also require a person, political subdivision of the state, or governmental agency desiring a license for a general acute care hospital, to file with the department a statement that it has complied with the requirements of the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act of 1983 and has received approval pursuant to that act. The bill would prohibit the department from issuing the license until this requirement is satisfied. Existing law, the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act of 1983, establishes, under the jurisdiction of the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, a program of seismic safety building standards for certain hospitals constructed on and after March 7, 1973. Existing law authorizes the office to assess an application fee for the review of facilities design and construction, and requires that full and complete plans be submitted to the office for review and approval. Existing law requires that, after January 1, 2008, any general acute care hospital building that is determined to be a potential risk of collapse or pose significant loss of life be used only for nonacute care hospital purposes, except that the office may grant a 5-year extension of that deadline, under prescribed circumstances, for both structural and nonstructural requirements. Existing law also authorizes the office to grant an additional extension if the hospital building meets designated criteria, including appropriately retrofitting the facility, as specified. This bill would, among other things, revise the conditions that a hospital owner would be required to meet in order for the office to grant an additional extension. This bill would authorize the department to revoke the extension if the construction is abandoned or suspended for at least 6 months, except as specified. This bill would authorize the office to grant a 3-year extension of the 5-year extension in lieu of the previously described additional extension under specified conditions. It would require a hospital owner that applies for an extension authorized pursuant to this bill to pay to the office a fee for reporting requirements for this extension. Because all fees paid to the office are deposited into the continuously appropriated Hospital Building Fund, the bill would make an appropriation. This bill would provide that the 3-year extension provisions proposed to be added by this bill would not become operative if both this bill and SB 608 are enacted, both bills add Section 130064 to the Health and Safety Code, and SB 608 is chaptered last. This bill would require a hospital that has an SPC-1 building to post a specified sign at all public entrances to the building and certify to the office that it has complied with specified requirements. It would also subject a hospital, that fails to post pursuant to the requirement, to civil penalties. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 130064 of the Health and Safety Code, as proposed by SB 608, that would become operative only if SB 608 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2011, and this bill is chaptered last.