California's rural hospitals struggle to meet seismic safety deadlines

Ana Ibarra reports for CalMatters from Garberville, California, in southern Humboldt County on a rural hospital's struggle to complete its seismic retrofit.  It's a timely report in the wake of the serious earthquake in that area last month.  Here's an excerpt from Ibarra's story:  

Jerold Phelps Community Hospital in Garberville, California is one of the smallest in the country. Its mere nine acute-care beds serve a community of about 10,000 people in southern Humboldt County. The next closest emergency room is about an hour’s drive north.

Despite its small size, the hospital is facing a hefty price tag to meet the 2030 retrofit deadline required under the state’s seismic safety standards — about $50 million for a new single story hospital that would replace its 1960s building.

Although it’s been decades since California implemented its strict seismic safety requirements, paying for those upgrades continues to be a tough task, especially for smaller facilities with limited resources and funding, according to hospital officials across the state. Like Jerold Phelps Community Hospital, two-thirds of California hospitals have yet to meet the looming state seismic deadline that requires hospital buildings to be updated to ensure they can keep operating after an earthquake.

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Hospital administrators acknowledge their buildings need to remain safe and available for emergency services following a quake, but they say they need more time to complete their upgrades and construction projects, especially as many are still reeling from the financial strains of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials at smaller hospitals say that in addition to time, they need funding. They also want more flexibility. The Legislature, they say, should revisit the rules and grant them more leeway for buildings that provide non-emergency services.

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California soon will provide at least some aid to small and rural hospitals for these projects through grants funded by the state’s e-cigarette tax. The first round of funding is expected to be made available by April of this year. Although it is unclear how much each hospital would get.

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 One reason Jerold Phelps Community Hospital in Humboldt County couldn’t start planning its seismic safety projects sooner is because it has spent the last couple of decades working its way out of a financial crisis...

In 2000, the hospital filed for bankruptcy. And in order to qualify for a loan to fund its construction project, the hospital first needed to be in good financial standing. For the past three years, the hospital has been busy raising $4 million for the downpayment for a federal loan.

The financial plight of small hospitals is well documented. Just last week Madera Community Hospital closed its doors due to financial constraints.

The hospital, in the Central Valley city of Madera, was set to be sold to Trinity Health Corporation, but that deal fell through. That means residents of that community will have to travel about 40 minutes to the next closest emergency room.