Under a new state law, most general acute care hospitals will need to post public notices and report annual status updates on their compliance with 2030 seismic requirements by the end of 2023.
The Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) has released Policy Intent Notice (PIN) 75, effective Dec. 12, which provides initial guidance about what hospitals will need to do to implement the requirements of Assembly Bill 1882 (R. Rivas, 2022). Highlights include:
- Public notices will need to be posted in any lobby or waiting room for any building subject to seismic requirements that has not yet met the structural performance category (SPC) and nonstructural performance category (NPC) requirements that are required under current state law to be met by 2030. State law requires these notices to be posted by Jan. 1, 2024.
- HCAI proposes that the location and content of these notices will be required to be submitted through a construction project submittal. Notices will contain both the SPC and NPC ratings.
- HCAI is required to provide the notices by July 1, 2023. It is still developing the notices and CHA will provide input to HCAI. A potential example is provided in the PIN, which shows the ratings color-coded from poor to good for SPC and NPC ratings, with good being the highest SPC and NPC ratings.
- Annual status updates on the SPC ratings of the buildings and the services provided in each hospital building on the hospital campus are to be sent to the required reporting entities. This includes county boards of supervisors, city council members, and labor unions representing workers in buildings that are not yet 2030 seismically compliant.
- Annual status reports must be submitted electronically by Dec. 15, 2023, using the eServices portal on the HCAI website.
To help hospitals prepare to meet these new requirements next year, CHA will host a webinar in February with HCAI. More information on how to register will be available in January.