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) Any 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.
(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) A hospital denied an extension pursuant to this subdivision may appeal the denial to the Hospital Building Safety Board.
(4) 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.