Section 130005 Of Article 8. New State Responsibilities For Seismic Safety In Hospitals From California Health And Safety Code >> Division 107. >> Part 7. >> Chapter 1. >> Article 8.
130005
. By June 30, 1996:
(a) The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development,
hereinafter called the office, shall develop definitions of
earthquake performance categories for earthquake ground motions for
both new and existing hospitals that are:
(1) Reasonably capable of providing services to the public after a
disaster, designed and constructed to resist, insofar as practical,
the forces generated by earthquakes, gravity, and winds, and in full
compliance with the regulations and standards developed by the office
pursuant to the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety
Act.
(2) In substantial compliance with the pre-1973 California
Building Standards Codes, but not in substantial compliance with the
regulations and standards developed by the office pursuant to the
Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act. These
buildings may not be repairable or functional but will not
significantly jeopardize life.
(3) Potentially at significant risk of collapse and that represent
a danger to the public.
(b) The office may define other earthquake performance categories
as it deems necessary to meet the intent of this article and the
Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act.
(c) Earthquake performance categories shall also include
subgradations for risk to life, structural soundness, building
contents, and nonstructural systems that are critical to providing
basic services to hospital inpatients and the public after a
disaster.
(d) Earthquake performance categories shall, as far as
practicable, use language consistent with definitions and concepts as
developed in the model codes and other state and federal agencies.
Where the office finds that deviations from other's definitions and
concepts are necessary and warranted to comply with the intent of the
Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act, the act
that added this article, or the specific nature or functions of
hospitals, the office shall provide supporting documentation that
justifies these differences.
(e) Insofar as practicable, the office shall define rapid seismic
evaluation procedures that will allow owners to determine with
reasonable certainty the existing applicable earthquake performance
categories and the minimum acceptable earthquake performance
categories for hospital buildings. These procedures shall allow for
abbreviated analysis when known vulnerability is clear and when
construction in accordance with post-1973 codes allows for an
evaluation focusing on limited structural and nonstructural elements.
(f) The office, in consultation with the Hospital Building Safety
Board, shall develop regulations to identify the most critical
nonstructural systems and to prioritize the timeframes for upgrading
those systems that represent the greatest risk of failure during an
earthquake.
(g) The office shall develop regulations as they apply to the
administration of seismic standards for retrofit designs,
construction, and field reviews for the purposes of this article.
(h) The office shall develop regulations for the purpose of
reviewing requests and granting delays to hospitals demonstrating a
need for more time to comply with Section 130060.
(i) The office shall submit all information developed pursuant to
subdivisions (a) to (f), inclusive, to the California Building
Standards Commission by June 30, 1996.
(j) The office shall submit all information developed pursuant to
subdivisions (g) and (h) to the California Building Standards
Commission by December 31, 1996.
(k) "Hospital building," as used in Article 8 and Article 9 of
this chapter means a hospital building as defined in Section 129725
and that is also licensed pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section
1250, but does not include these buildings if the beds licensed
pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 1250, as of January 1, 1995,
comprise 10 percent or less of the total licensed beds of the total
physical plant, and does not include facilities owned or operated, or
both, by the Department of Corrections.