Health facilities: 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 requires that, after January 1, 2008, any general acute care hospital building that is determined to be at 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 under prescribed circumstances. Existing law also allows the office to grant an additional extension of up to 2 years for a hospital building that, among other requirements, is owned by a health care district that has, as owner, received the extension of the January 1, 2008, deadline, but where the hospital is operated by an unaffiliated 3rd-party lessee pursuant to a facility lease that extends at least through December 31, 2009, if the health care district requests the additional extension by March 1, 2010. Existing law prohibits the office from granting the extension if an unaffiliated 3rd-party lessee will operate the hospital beyond December 31, 2010, and makes the extension applicable only while the hospital is operated by the district or an entity under the control of the district. This bill would authorize a health care district that is eligible to receive an additional extension of up to 2 years to request an additional 2-year extension if it submits a plan to submit a ballot measure to issue bonds to the voters.