Ventura County Medical Center Upgrades Seismic Safety Standards: Part 1

Following the 1994 Northridge, Calif., earthquake that measured 6.7 on the Moment Magnitude scale, which produced the highest ground acceleration ever instrumentally recorded in North America, the California legislature passed Amendment SB 1953 to the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Safety Act of 1973, which required all acute-care hospitals at risk of collapse be retrofit to withstand an earthquake. Additionally, the SB 1953 amendment required that by 2013 all hospitals that were considered hazardous and at risk of collapse or significant loss of life in the event of an earthquake must be replaced or retrofit to a higher seismic safety standard. The law also mandates that by 2030 all hospitals in California must be capable of remaining open and fully operational following a major quake.

Seismic Compliance

Seismic construction requirements are a nationwide phenomena. Different regions of the U.S. have adopted building codes to deal with various levels of seismic risk. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), hospital buildings in 39 states are vulnerable to earthquake damage – not only to construction materials and techniques, but also to nonstructural building systems. In critical applications, such as health care facilities, these components must go beyond the structure surviving an earthquake. Hospitals must remain functional in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Seismic Codes Across the U.S.

The seismic provisions of building codes are based on earthquake hazard maps that show the probabilities of certain levels of earthquake shaking in particular areas. The code requirements reflect the fact that some places are more likely than others to have strong earthquakes. The entire country is not required to meet the same seismic design standards as California, the state with the greatest risk. Places that have less severe and less frequent earthquakes have less stringent design requirements. For example, seismic codes require less in Boston than in Los Angeles. Conversely, seismic code requirements in southern Illinois, near the New Madrid seismic zone, are much stricter than in Chicago, which is less likely to have a strong earthquake.

Structural Evaluation Improvements

Since 1994, important programs and statutes have been enacted to help hospitals implement seismic building projects. One of these milestones was the implementation of Hazards US (HAZUS), developed by Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) in conjunction with the Hospital Building Safety Board.

HAZUS is a state-of-the-art modeling technology that allows for more accurate evaluation of the seismic-safety level of hospital buildings. Through HAZUS, a number of hospital buildings have been reclassified to lower levels of risk, taking them from Structural Performance Category (SPC)-1 (highest risk of collapse) to SPC-2 (lower risk of collapse). As a result, more than half of the hospital buildings that previously had to be retrofit or replaced by 2013/2015 now can be rebuilt by 2030. Certain facilities were able to secure a five-year extension, and others were granted another two years after that. However, currently, the final deadline to reach SPC level 2 is Jan. 1, 2020.

Challenges

Even with deadlines in place and standards being set, several obstacles remain – including the high costs of new hospital construction and the lack of funding and financial incentives for the hospitals to complete the work. The cost of making these seismic improvements ranges from $45 billion to $110 billion, according to a 2007 study by the Rand Corporation. And financing could double the cost. Complying by 2030 with the mandate that acute-care hospitals remain operational following an earthquake could add 20 percent to construction costs.

When the U.S. experienced an economic recession, many hospitals were on the edge of bankruptcy. Credit rates skyrocketed, and with no state financing for the Seismic Safety Act available, Jan Emerson-Shea, spokesperson with the California Hospital Association, described the act as “the most expensive unfunded mandate in the history of the state of California.”

However, many facilities are making use of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) Grant Program. With $63 million in PDM funding made available last year alone, the grant is an excellent source of capital for health care facilities to make their upgrades.
After 15 years, nearly 90 percent of the state’s 470 acute care hospitals have reached SPC 2 or above. That leaves only a handful of hospitals still working to complete their upgrades before the Jan. 1, 2020 deadline.

Construction Brings Medical Center Up to State Seismic Requirements

Ventura County Medical Center (VCMC) is a fully integrated, comprehensive system of hospital, clinic and specialty services. The system provides access to high-quality, compassionate health care to residents throughout Ventura County. While VCMC provides access to health care to all county residents, special emphasis is placed on providing access to care for the underserved and those facing barriers to access. Referred to as the “safety net” population, these individuals comprise over three quarters of the care provided by VCMC.

New Construction

In 2013, construction began on what is now a parking lot behind the hospital for a $300 million, four-story, 242,000-square-foot hospital wing to replace a portion of the building completed in the 1950s. The project will bring the medical center up to state seismic requirements SB1953 with SB306 extension and is anticipated for a 2017 completion.

The project will replace a 122-bed, acute-care facility with a state-of-the-art facility and will support numerous medical services, including emergency, surgery obstetrics, ICU, NICU, PICU and imaging. It will also include six operating rooms including a hybrid OR and two interventional suites.

In addition to the medical scope of work, the team will add a new central utility plant and loading dock with potential safety self-closing gates to the VCMC campus, relocating the existing steam plant operations into the new building, partial demolition of the existing facilities, and renovation of the existing facilities that are not demolished. The hospital will remain fully functional throughout the duration of the project.

For the rest of the project details and how it has been brought up to seismic standards, read next week’s Ventura County Medical Center Upgrades Seismic Safety Standards: Part 2.

Jack Reddehase, DBIA, CHC, LEED AP is vice president Clark Construction Group – California LP and may be reached at 415-716-7549 or jack.reddehase@clarkconstruction.com. Clark Construction Group is a leading provider of general building and civil construction services.