HCAI details 2025 Title 24 updates affecting hospitals, imaging rooms, temporary structures and psychiatric care

The Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) outlined key 2025 updates to Title 24 on March 29, 2025, during a public webinar, noting the California Administrative Code became effective March 29, 2025, after filing with the Secretary of State. HCAI said the changes affect hospital seismic evaluation procedures, review and submittal responsibilities for design professionals and contractors, and facility-specific provisions for imaging rooms, temporary structures and tents, sterile compounding pharmacies, and psychiatric and chemical-dependency service areas.

Why it matters: the updates clarify who may submit plans to HCAI, tighten submittal and compliance-reporting expectations, and provide new advisory guidance (including the A10 imaging-room guide and several design advisory guides) intended to reduce late-stage licensing delays and align Title 24 with other regulatory requirements such as NFPA 99, USP sterile-compounding rules, and CDPH (Title 22) licensing expectations.

Mia Marbelli, supervisor of the Building Standards Unit at HCAI, said the Administrative Code follows a different effective-date rule than other parts of Title 24 and that the Administrative Code took effect 03/29/2025 after commission approval and filing with the Secretary of State. Marbelli drew attention to Chapter 6 seismic-evaluation changes for hospital buildings and to a series of spring webinars produced by HCAI—s seismic compliance unit that addressed new submission processes and a law (Assembly Bill 869) that allows an eligible rural or small hospital to request up to a three-year delay in compliance if certain criteria are met and HCAI concurrence is obtained.

HCAI described several procedural and jurisdictional clarifications. Chapter 7 was rewritten in places to itemize required submission documents; HCAI said it coordinated with the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists to allow fire-protection engineers to prepare and submit documents for projects that fall within their —responsible charge.—…