Hospitals: seismic safety.

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 fees to be credited to the Hospital Building Fund, which is continuously appropriated to the office. 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 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 grant an additional extension of up to 2 years if specified criteria are met. This bill would require a hospital owner that applies for an extension pursuant to this bill to pay to the office a fee for the costs of reporting required for this extension. Because these fees would be deposited into a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. This bill would provide that this bill's provisions would not become operative if both this bill and SB 289 are enacted, both bills add Section 130064 to the Health and Safety Code, and SB 289 is chaptered last.