BILL NUMBER: AB 523 ENROLLED
BILL TEXT
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 27, 2009
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 31, 2009
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 15, 2009
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 24, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Huffman
(Principal coauthor: Senator Leno)
FEBRUARY 25, 2009
An act to amend Section 130060 of the Health and Safety Code,
relating to health facilities, and declaring the urgency thereof, to
take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 523, Huffman. Hospitals: 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 authorizes the office to assess an
application fee for the review of facilities design and construction,
and requires that full and complete plans be submitted to the office
for review and approval.
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 2-year extension to the
January 2008 deadline in specified circumstances.
This bill would also allow the office to grant the additional
2-year extension 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. This bill would require the district to file a
declaration stating specified information as a condition for
receiving the extension. This bill would prohibit the office from
granting the extension if an unaffiliated 3rd-party lessee will
operate the hospital beyond December 31, 2010, and would make the
extension applicable only while the hospital is operated by the
district or an entity under the control of the district.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 130060 of the Health and Safety Code is amended
to read:
130060. (a) (1) After January 1, 2008, any general acute care
hospital building that is determined to be a potential risk of
collapse or pose significant loss of life shall only be used for
nonacute care hospital purposes. A delay in this deadline may be
granted by the office upon a demonstration by the owner that
compliance will result in a loss of health care capacity that may not
be provided by other general acute care hospitals within a
reasonable proximity. In its request for an extension of the
deadline, a hospital shall state why the hospital is unable to comply
with the January 1, 2008, deadline requirement.
(2) Prior to granting an extension of the January 1, 2008,
deadline pursuant to this section, the office shall do all of the
following:
(A) Provide public notice of a hospital's request for an extension
of the deadline. The notice, at a minimum, shall be posted on the
office's Internet Web site, and shall include the facility's name and
identification number, the status of the request, and the beginning
and ending dates of the comment period, and shall advise the public
of the opportunity to submit public comments pursuant to subparagraph
(C). The office shall also provide notice of all requests for the
deadline extension directly to interested parties upon request of the
interested parties.
(B) Provide copies of extension requests to interested parties
within 10 working days to allow interested parties to review and
provide comment within the 45-day comment period. The copies shall
include those records that are available to the public pursuant to
the Public Records Act, Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 6250) of
Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code.
(C) Allow the public to submit written comments on the extension
proposal for a period of not less than 45 days from the date of the
public notice.
(b) (1) It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this
subdivision, to facilitate the process of having more hospital
buildings in substantial compliance with this chapter and to take
nonconforming general acute care hospital inpatient buildings out of
service more quickly.
(2) The functional contiguous grouping of hospital buildings of a
general acute care hospital, each of which provides, as the primary
source, one or more of the hospital's eight basic services as
specified in subdivision (a) of Section 1250, may receive a five-year
extension of the January 1, 2008, deadline specified in subdivision
(a) of this section pursuant to this subdivision for both structural
and nonstructural requirements. A functional contiguous grouping
refers to buildings containing one or more basic hospital services
that are either attached or connected in a way that is acceptable to
the State Department of Health Services. These buildings may be
either on the existing site or a new site.
(3) To receive the five-year extension, a single building
containing all of the basic services or at least one building within
the contiguous grouping of hospital buildings shall have obtained a
building permit prior to 1973 and this building shall be evaluated
and classified as a nonconforming, Structural Performance Category-1
(SPC-1) building. The classification shall be submitted to and
accepted by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.
The identified hospital building shall be exempt from the requirement
in subdivision (a) until January 1, 2013, if the hospital agrees
that the basic service or services that were provided in that
building shall be provided, on or before January 1, 2013, as follows:
(A) Moved into an existing conforming Structural Performance
Category-3 (SPC-3), Structural Performance Category-4 (SPC-4), or
Structural Performance Category-5 (SPC-5) and Non-Structural
Performance Category-4 (NPC-4) or Non-Structural Performance
Category-5 (NPC-5) building.
(B) Relocated to a newly built compliant SPC-5 and NPC-4 or NPC-5
building.
(C) Continued in the building if the building is retrofitted to a
SPC-5 and NPC-4 or NPC-5 building.
(4) A five-year extension is also provided to a post 1973 building
if the hospital owner informs the Office of Statewide Health
Planning and Development that the building is classified as a SPC-1,
SPC-3, or SPC-4 and will be closed to general acute care inpatient
service use by January 1, 2013. The basic services in the building
shall be relocated into a SPC-5 and NPC-4 or NPC-5 building by
January 1, 2013.
(5) SPC-1 buildings, other than the building identified in
paragraph (3) or (4), in the contiguous grouping of hospital
buildings shall also be exempt from the requirement in subdivision
(a) until January 1, 2013. However, on or before January 1, 2013, at
a minimum, each of these buildings shall be retrofitted to a SPC-2
and NPC-3 building, or no longer be used for general acute care
hospital inpatient services.
(c) On or before March 1, 2001, the office shall establish a
schedule of interim work progress deadlines that hospitals shall be
required to meet to be eligible for the extension specified in
subdivision (b). To receive this extension, the hospital building or
buildings shall meet the year 2002 nonstructural requirements.
(d) A hospital building that is eligible for an extension pursuant
to this section shall meet the January 1, 2030, nonstructural and
structural deadline requirements if the building is to be used for
general acute care inpatient services after January 1, 2030.
(e) Upon compliance with subdivision (b), the hospital shall be
issued a written notice of compliance by the office. The office shall
send a written notice of violation to hospital owners that fail to
comply with this section. The office shall make copies of these
notices available on its Web site.
(f) (1) A hospital that has received an extension of the January
1, 2008, deadline pursuant to subdivisions (a) or (b) may request an
additional extension of up to two years for a hospital building that
it owns or operates and that meets the criteria specified in
paragraph (2) or (3).
(2) The office may grant the additional extension if the hospital
building subject to the extension meets all of the following
criteria:
(A) The hospital building is under construction at the time of the
request for extension under this subdivision and the purpose of the
construction is to meet the requirements of subdivision (a) to allow
the use of the building as a general acute care hospital building
after the extension deadline granted by the office pursuant to
subdivision (a) or (b).
(B) The hospital building plans were submitted to the office and
were deemed ready for review by the office at least four years prior
to the applicable deadline for the building. The hospital shall
indicate, upon submission of its plans, the SPC-1 building or
buildings that will be retrofitted or replaced to meet the
requirements of this section as a result of the project.
(C) The hospital received a building permit for the construction
described in subparagraph (A) at least two years prior to the
applicable deadline for the building.
(D) The hospital submitted a construction timeline at least two
years prior to the applicable deadline for the building demonstrating
the hospital's intent to meet the applicable deadline. The timeline
shall include all of the following:
(i) The projected construction start date.
(ii) The projected construction completion date.
(iii) Identification of the contractor.
(E) The hospital is making reasonable progress toward meeting the
timeline set forth in subparagraph (D), but factors beyond the
hospital's control make it impossible for the hospital to meet the
deadline.
(3) The office may grant the additional extension if the hospital
building subject to the extension meets all of the following
criteria:
(A) The hospital building 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
third-party lessee pursuant to a facility lease that extends at least
through December 31, 2009. The district shall file a declaration
with the office with a request for an extension stating that, as of
the date of the filing, the district has lacked, and continues to
lack, unrestricted access to the subject hospital building for
seismic planning purposes during the term of the lease, and that the
district is under contract with the county to maintain hospital
services when the hospital comes under district control. The office
shall not grant the extension if an unaffiliated third-party lessee
will operate the hospital beyond December 31, 2010.
(B) The hospital building plans were submitted to the office and
were deemed ready for review by the office at least four years prior
to the applicable deadline for the building. The hospital shall
indicate, upon submission of its plans, the SPC-1 building or
buildings that will be retrofitted or replaced to meet the
requirements of this section as a result of the project.
(C) The hospital received a building permit for the construction
described in subparagraph (B) by December 31, 2011.
(D) The hospital submitted, by December 31, 2011, a construction
timeline for the building demonstrating the hospital's intent and
ability to meet the deadline of December 31, 2014. The timeline shall
include all of the following:
(i) The projected construction start date.
(ii) The projected construction completion date.
(iii) Identification of the contractor.
(E) The hospital building is under construction at the time of the
request for the extension, the purpose of the construction is to
meet the requirements of subdivision (a) to allow the use of the
building as a general acute care hospital building after the
extension deadline granted by the office pursuant to subdivision (a)
or (b), and the hospital is making reasonable progress toward meeting
the timeline set forth in subparagraph (D).
(F) The hospital granted an extension pursuant to this paragraph
shall submit an additional status report to the office, equivalent to
that required by subdivision (c) of Section 130061, no later than
June 30, 2013.
(4) An extension granted pursuant to paragraph (3) shall be
applicable only to the health care district applicant and its
affiliated hospital while the hospital is operated by the district or
an entity under the control of the district.
(5) A hospital denied an extension pursuant to this subdivision
may appeal the denial to the Hospital Building Safety Board.
(6) The office may revoke an extension granted pursuant to this
subdivision for any hospital building where the work of construction
is abandoned or suspended for a period of at least one year, unless
the hospital demonstrates in a public document that the abandonment
or suspension was caused by factors beyond its control.
SEC. 2. The Legislature intends the amendments to Section 130060
of the Health and Safety Code made by this act to affirm the hospital
seismic deadlines contained in Section 130060 and provide a one-time
extension of the deadlines that is designed to address the unique
needs of Marin General Hospital.
SEC. 3. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
Patients will be denied access to critical health care services in
areas where the serving hospital is unable to meet seismic retrofit
guidelines and where that hospital is unable to qualify for an
extension of those guidelines. This measure allows safety-net
hospitals to continue to provide vital services in their community.