One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
You Don't Want to Be in a Hospital When Big One Strikes the San Andreas Fault
Many Southern California hospitals near the San Andreas Fault aren't prepared for the Big One, according to an investigation by the California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting.
The state set a high bar for the seismic safety for hospitals after the 1994 Northridge quake, because the margin for error is smaller. Their reasoning is this: First, the safety of patients already in the hospital could be at risk if power runs out, pipes leak or the building starts to crumble during a quake. Second, the hospitals need to be able to stay open, when the ranks of the injured start to come in to the hospital. If too many hospitals go off-line near the epicenter, it could spell disaster for the ranks of those seriously injured in the quake.
The Center for Health Reporting teamed up with newspapers in the San Bernardino Area, which have several hospitals near the San Andreas Fault. Only one hospital near the fault, the the 25-bed Colorado River Medical Center in Needles, would be functional after a 7.8 quake, according to analysis by UCLA. Four hospitals in San Bernardino County, including the Loma Linda University Medical Center's main and east campuses and two San Bernardino hospitals, St. Bernardine Medical Center and Community Hospital wouldn't be functional after an earthquake, according to an analysis by University of Toledo engineering professor Mark A. Pickett.
The problem isn't just in Southern California. The investigation found that hospitals statewide haven't brought their buildings up to new seismic codes:
As of 2009, fully 1,357 hospital buildings statewide had not made fixes that should have been finished at the start of 2002, according to a December 2009 report from state regulators.
Another 1,233 buildings, or 95 percent of buildings statewide, had not yet done improvements that were due Jan. 1, 2013, according to the report. State officials caution that some hospitals may have completed upgrades, but they do not have up-to-date statistics.
What's the hold up? Money, of course. Retrofitting these hospitals has a pretty hefty price tag and the state isn't chipping in. California hospitals have long complained that the law requiring tighter seismic standards for hospitals is too expensive for them to do without help from the state:
The law's $2 million-a-bed price tag makes it the largest unfunded mandate in state history, said Jan Emerson-Shea, spokeswoman for the California Hospital Association.
"We're choosing to spend $110 billion to bring hospitals into compliance, with not one dime of public money," she said.
Many hospitals have asked for extra time to rebuild or retrofit, explaining they are financially strapped as they wrestle with the sour economy, scarce financing, lower reimbursements and a surge of uninsured patients.
Sponsored message
Check out the rest of the investigation and an interactive map of hospitals near the fault.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
