Calif. hospitals may not meet earthquake safety standards

Nearly half of California hospital buildings in danger of collapsing during a major earthquake will not meet a state deadline for safety improvements, according to a new study.

Standards passed after the deadly 1994 Northridge earthquake in Southern California required that vulnerable buildings be retrofitted or replaced by 2008, a deadline that was extended to 2013. By 2030, all hospitals must be able to stay open and treat patients after a disaster.

The report funded by the California HealthCare Foundation and conducted by Rand Corp. projected that nearly half of some 900 hospital buildings statewide will not meet the 2030 retrofitting deadline.

More than 80 percent of weak buildings are in the San Francisco Bay area and greater Los Angeles region.

The study does not single out hospitals, but notes the buildings are on over 300 hospital campuses across the state. It also projects that quake-proofing the hospital buildings by the deadlines would cost between $40 billion to $110 billion.

Although the law was well-intentioned, following through has proved to be a headache as half of the hospitals in the state are operating in the red, said Jan Emerson, spokeswoman for the California Hospital Association, which represents about 500 hospitals and health care systems.

If policymakers leave the standards unchanged, the state could be forced to close noncompliant hospitals.