Los Angeles Hospitals Rushing to Meet Newly Mandated Seismic Standards
The race to meet new state mandated seismic standards for health care facilities has produced a massive hospital building boom in the Los Angeles healthcare market, according to a new report from HealthLeaders-Interstudy, a provider of managed care market intelligence.
The race to meet new state mandated seismic standards for health care facilities has produced a massive hospital building boom in the Los Angeles healthcare market, according to a new report from HealthLeaders-Interstudy, a provider of managed care market intelligence.
According to the latest Los Angeles Market Overview, meeting these state mandates is an expensive proposition that some facilities cannot afford amid above-average financial losses from operations.
Los Angeles area hospitals continue to post above-average losses from operations, and with total margins averaging less than 1 percent, it's evident that many hospitals are struggling, according to the report. The Los Angeles public health system is struggling with cost estimates that have increased from $100 million in 2005 to $767 million in 2007.
Rolling deadlines begin in 2008 for the new stringent seismic standards to be completed by 2013. The California legislature has extended this deadline to 2015 if construction is under way but cannot be completed by the earlier deadline.
A potential reprieve could be in the making as state regulators agreed last month to consider a new methodology in assessing hospital structures that could reduce the number of hospitals that are out of compliance.
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