Buildings at Sonoma Valley Hospital require seismic upgrades

While most area hospital campuses would probably remain standing, three acute care campuses could lose services in an earthquake.|

Were a major earthquake to strike Sonoma County, 91 percent of the county's 68 structures located on hospital campuses would probably remain standing and even continue providing services, state officials said.

The bad news is some of the structures would likely be unusable after an earthquake including principal hospital facilities such as Sonoma Valley Hospital. Three of the county's seven general acute care hospital campuses have a total of six buildings that would likely be knocked out of commission during an earthquake.

Each hospital campus has multiple buildings - Sonoma Valley Hospital has 11, for example, and Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital's campus on Montgomery Drive has 14. None of the 68 buildings is in danger of collapsing from a strong earthquake, but by 2030 all hospital structures must be strong enough to remain operational after the shaking stops.

The state has established a set of seismic performance category ratings, or SPC, for hospital structures, with the goal of bringing all such buildings out of the danger zone by 2030. Hospital buildings with an SPC-1 rating are those most likely to collapse after a strong earthquake and those with an SPC-2 rating would be unusable after a strong temblor.

Maben Rainwater, director of business development for Healdsburg District Hospital, stressed that the main hospital's SPC-2 rating does not pose an immediate danger nor is it expected to collapse during a big earthquake. But replacing the hospital altogether could cost more than $100 million, said Nancy Schmid, Healdsburg District Hospital CEO.

Some hospitals have greater leeway for dealing with buildings with low seismic ratings than others. They simply move services from an older building to a newer one.

At the Sonoma Valley Hospital campus, hospital officials moved emergency and surgery services from an SPC-2 rated hospital wing to a 2013 constructed wing with a rating of SPC-5, the state's highest hospital rating. Sonoma Valley Hospital spokeswoman Celia Kruse de la Rosa said the hospital's west wing, which is also rated SPC-2, can continue to house acute care services and will be upgraded to an SPC-4 building by 2030.

At Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, the two structures with an SPC-2 rating are “hallways,” said hospital spokeswoman Vanessa DeGier.

St. Joseph Health, Sonoma County, which operates Memorial Hospital, also maintains the old Memorial hospital building at 151 Sotoyome St., with an SPC-2 rating. But DeGier said there are no patient services in that building.

By strong earthquake, California's Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) means something much bigger than the magnitude 6.0 temblor that hit in Napa in 2014. That quake wasn't strong enough to bring down several Napa hospital buildings with the lowest seismic rating.

State seismic safety requirements date to early 1973, when state lawmakers enacted legislation following the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, a moderate 6.6 shaker in San Fernando Valley that brought down two hospitals, killing 47 people there and 65 overall.

The Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Seismic Safety Act required hospitals to be designed and constructed to withstand a major earthquake. The state expected old hospitals would gradually be replaced by newer structures built to seismic safety standards and that by 2000, most hospitals would be up to code.

That didn't happen. For years after 1973, older hospitals continued to be used. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the Alquist Act was expanded to require all hospitals to be free from the risk of collapse during a big earthquake.

According to the OSHPD, four Sonoma County hospital campuses - Kaiser Santa Rosa Medical Center, Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, Sonoma West Medical Center and Petaluma Valley Hospital with a total of 61 structures - all have an SPC rating of 3 or better and meet state requirements.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.

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