(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(1) Following a major earthquake, Californians will rely on their community hospitals to provide care to those who are injured, to continue to care for those already within the hospital, and to respond to the emergent needs of new patients.
(2) Under existing law, all hospital buildings providing acute care services in California are required to be fully functional to provide care following an earthquake as of 2030. This standard includes both structural performance categories (SPC) and nonstructural performance categories (NPC), such as for electricity, water, sewage, oxygen, and other mechanical and electrical systems.
(3) The Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act of 1983, which was passed after the 1971 Sylmar earthquake that caused the collapse of the Veteran Administration Hospital and killed 47 people, as well as the collapse of large sections of Olive View County Hospital, which led to its closure six weeks after it opened, required that new hospital construction be seismically sound. The act’s focus on new hospital construction was based on the understanding that the useful life of hospital buildings was 20 to 30 years and that most existing hospital buildings would be replaced by the mid-1990s.
(4) The 1994 Northridge earthquake showed that nonstructural damage is a serious threat to patient safety and a hospital’s capacity to function. Also, as of 1994, most hospital buildings still predated 1972 and thus were at risk of collapse in a major earthquake.
(5) As of 2022, most hospitals in California do not fully meet the seismic safety standards that will be required in order to remain operational past the 2030 deadline.
(6) Patients receiving care in seismically deficient hospitals when an earthquake occurs will be at risk of needing to be immediately evacuated, even if other hospitals in the area have also been impacted by the earthquake. Additionally, seismically deficient hospital buildings may not be available to treat new patients.
(7) It is critical for cities, counties, and the state to fully understand hospitals’ seismic safety compliance in order to prepare earthquake response and recovery plans.
(b) The Legislature reaffirms its commitment to Californians that hospitals will be fully functional and able to provide hospital care to Californians after an earthquake.
(c) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature to ensure that the Department of Health Care Access and Information, Office of Emergency Services, relevant local government entities, and other interested parties are notified of the status of acute care hospitals’ compliance with existing requirements that the facilities be fully functional to provide care following an earthquake as of 2030.
(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 584, Sec. 1. (AB 1882) Effective January 1, 2023.)