Nurses call California hospitals over earthquake retrofits

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Dive brief: California nurses cry over a proposal circulating in Sacramento that would give hospitals another seven years to comply with a seismic retrofit law requiring them to be able to continue to operate after an earthquake. The California Nurses Association issued a statement opposing efforts by the California Hospital Association, backed by Governor Gavin Newsom, to extend the 2037 deadline to 2030 requiring hospitals to make upgrades to ensure they can serve patients, even after a major seismic event. Four days after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck near Lake Tahoe on July 8, the CNA described California hospitals as driven by profits, not standards of patient care. “The real goal of corporate hospitals is to break out of the entire 2030 seismic safety standards and leave us all unprotected,” the Cyprus News Agency said in the statement. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the deadly tragedies that occur when hospitals are not prepared for disasters and emergencies. Let’s not let hospitals make the same fatal mistake twice.” Dive Insight:

The California Hospital Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this article. The group issued an alert on its website last week urging supporters to contact their representatives in the state legislature to “refocus hospital earthquake requirements for 2030 on emergency services and provide additional time for hospitals to comply as the long recovery from the impact of the pandemic begins.”

The legislature and Newsom are still arguing over the details of the state’s $263 billion budget, two weeks into the new fiscal year. The legislature has technically met the June 15 budget deadline, which Newsom signed off on, but the final agreement is still pending.

The hospital’s building standards requirements are one of the last major sticking points, according to the Los Angeles Times, which also reported that Newsom supports the CHA’s proposal.

The case revolves around two stipulations passed in the aftermath of the 1994 Northridge earthquake that wreaked havoc in Southern California. The first requires that hospitals meet seismic standards to ensure they do not collapse during a major earthquake; 95% of hospitals in the state already meet this standard, with the remaining 5% updating by 2025.

But the second mandate calls for hospitals to be able to continue operating and serving patients after a major earthquake by 2030. Nearly two-thirds of hospitals have not yet achieved this goal, and the CHA is asking for more time and limited scope for the rule to apply only to emergency facilities.

The California Building and Construction Trade Board and the California Federation of California Workers and Professional Firefighters signed the Nurses’ Statement opposing this proposal.

After news of the current proposal emerged, the Building Trade Council issued a tweet with a photo of the ruins of Selmar Hospital, which collapsed during the 1971 earthquake, under the words “Now is not the time for another disaster.” The image was similar to the wreckage of the Champlain Towers South apartment tower, which collapsed in Florida last month, prompting calls for more stringent inspections and safety standards for existing buildings.

The Hospital Association argued that it is only trying to prioritize medical services that should be available in an emergency.

“We are focused on the services that should operate in the event of a disaster,” David Simon, a spokesman for the CHA, told The Times. “Do you really need everything? Should the plastic surgery wards be operational?”

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