Hospitals: seismic safety.

The Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act of 1983 establishes, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health Care Access and Information, a program of seismic safety building standards for certain hospitals constructed on and after March 7, 1973. A violation of the act is a misdemeanor. The act requires an owner of a general acute care inpatient hospital, no later than January 1, 2030, to either demolish, replace, or change to nonacute care use all hospital buildings not in substantial compliance with the regulations and standards developed pursuant to the act, or seismically retrofit all acute care inpatient hospital buildings so that they are in substantial compliance with those regulations and standards. Existing law requires, within 60 days following the department's approval of a report relating to a general acute care hospital owner's plan to comply with those regulations and standards, a general acute hospital building owner to include all pertinent information regarding the building's expected earthquake performance in emergency training, response, and recovery plans, and in capital outlay plans. This bill would instead require general acute hospital building owners, commencing July 1, 2023, to take those actions annually until each of the hospital buildings owned by that owner is compliant with those regulations and standards. Existing law required the owner of an acute care inpatient hospital whose building does not substantially comply with seismic safety regulations or standards to, before January 1, 2020, submit to the department an attestation that the board of directors of that hospital is aware that the hospital building is required to meet the January 1, 2030, deadline for substantial compliance with those regulations and standards. This bill would also require, on or before January 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, the hospital owner to provide an annual status update on the Structural Performance Category ratings of the buildings and the services provided in each hospital building on the hospital campus, until compliance, to specified entities, including the department, the county board of supervisors, and the local office of emergency services or the equivalent agency. The bill would make conforming changes to related provisions. The bill would also impose various other requirements on the hospital owners and the department relating to notifying patients and the public that the hospital is not in compliance with seismic safety regulations and standards. The bill would declare the provisions of the bill to be severable. By imposing new requirements on hospital owners, the violation of which would be a misdemeanor, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.