California offers technical help and grants as hospitals ready seismic compliance plans

Californias Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) and the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) spent the workshops opening session walking rural and critical access hospitals through the Seismic Compliance Plan requirement and related funding options.

OSHPDs presenters said the compliance plan requires two tables for each hospital: a building-level decision table (for retrofit, relocation or demolition) and a 10-milestone construction timeline. "This has been required since 1998," OSHPD project staff said, stressing that the current change is how plans are submitted and tracked rather than new technical standards.

HCAI staff urged hospitals to use the agencys templates and to select at least 10 "critical" milestones spaced across the project to show measurable progress. "The deadline for both of those is January 1," said Haley (Seismic Compliance Unit), referring to the compliance-plan submission and the AB 869 delay application.

The AB 869 delay provides a limited extension to the January 1, 2030 final compliance deadline for eligible small, rural or critical access hospitals. Presenters said hospitals must meet all eligibility conditions: be in a qualifying category (small, rural, critical-access, district or a recipient of specified loans); have submitted NPC 4/5 evaluations by 01/01/2025; and show they actually need a delay. The delay window hospitals may request runs to 01/01/2033.

Dean OBrien, deputy director at HCAI, described the Small and Rural Hospital Relief Program (SRHRP), created by SB 395 and funded in part by an electronic-cigarette excise tax. He said the program reimburses many costs tied to retrofits and evaluations and provides ongoing technical assistance. "To date, every hospital that has submitted and fully completed the application with an eligible seismic compliance project has received an award," OBrien said.

SRHRP staff said grants can cover engineering evaluations, laboratory material testing, geotechnical reports, design fees and construction-phase costs for an SPC 4d retrofit. Not eligible are unrelated renovation work, new buildings or routine non-seismic projects; NPC-only work is not covered by the current SRHRP grant rules.

Presenters also described a cost-review role: OSHPD staff review contracts and scopes to remove unnecessary work, suggest phased testing to reduce costs, and coordinate directly with engineers and contractors. HCAI will post compliance plans, milestone statuses, HCAI notes and granted delays on its website for public view.

HCAI noted roughly $52 million in SRHRP funds remain unallocated, with about $9.5 million already committed and an additional $4 million under discussion. Staff encouraged hospitals to sign up for one-on-one consultations and use the agency templates to avoid starting from scratch.

What happens next: compliance plans and any AB 869 delay applications are due January 1 (the session emphasized coordination between the two filings), and OSHPD/HCAI offered help with completing forms and refining project scope.