HOSPITALS FACE THREAT OF COLLAPSE IN QUAKE.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

More than half the hospital buildings surveyed in Los Angeles County risk collapse in a strong earthquake and must be retrofitted or removed, according to a state report released Wednesday.

Virtually every San Fernando Valley hospital will need to fix or replace buildings to meet new regulations put in place following the disastrous Northridge Earthquake, the report says. Statewide, the bill to fix hospitals could total $14 billion, experts said.

``Today, for the first time we really have definite insight into how seismically vulnerable the hospital buildings are,'' said Dr. David Carlisle, director of the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, which oversees building hospital facilities.

However, fixing the problems in the report - or taking the medical centers out of service as acute care facilities - by the 2008 deadline poses an enormous financial challenge for hospitals, said Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Health Care Association of Southern California.

``People need to wake up: This is a poison pill that can bring down the health care system in Southern California,'' Lott said. ``We're not saying we shouldn't comply. The issue is where the money comes from.''

For the report, hospitals inventoried their facilities and ranked their ability to withstand a big temblor. The report showed problems with nearly 40 percent of the buildings surveyed at 426 hospitals statewide in the event of a quake like the 6.7-magnitude Northridge Quake.

According to the report:

--Of the state's 2,467 hospital buildings, 966 ``pose a significant risk of collapse and a danger to the public after a strong earthquake.''

--Statewide, 8 percent of buildings might not be functional following a strong quake, and the state has set a 2030 deadline for those to be in compliance.

--Hospitals must make nonstructural repairs - bracing communication, fire alarms, emergency lighting and other systems - by 2002.

In the Valley, repairs range from replacing the bulk of the buildings at Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Care Center to toppling two towers at Northridge Hospital Medical Center's Roscoe Boulevard campus.

``Getting those two buildings into compliance means replacing those buildings,'' said Northridge Hospital spokeswoman Teddi Grant, who said removing the old buildings that were cited and building a single, six-story replacement is expected to cost up to $150 million.

Alicia Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for area Adventist hospitals, said plans are under way to repair facilities at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, while a proposal to upgrade six of the 10 cited buildings at Simi Valley Hospital & Health Care Services are still being reviewed.

At the University of California, Los Angeles, all of the 11 buildings at the medical center were cited, and the university is planning improvements, officials said.

State officials said they have not estimated the cost of the repairs but health care organizations say the costs will reach $14 billion.

Some hospitals criticize the mandated renovations because they are required by the state - but not funded.

``The regulators have made this rule. ... Nobody wants to come up with the money to lend the hospitals,'' said David Levinsohn, CEO of Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Center, who said his facility withstood $75,000 in damages during the disastrous Northridge Quake that brought up to $20 billion in property damages.

``I think they make sweeping laws, they don't look at hospital by hospital, area by area. ... Why don't we have a look at the last earthquake, see who suffered, see who didn't?''

By next year, hospitals will need to submit plans for complying with the new regulations.

The new law, introduced one month after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, acts as an amendment to the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Seismic Safety Act that governs hospital construction.

That act had been passed following the 1971 Sylmar Quake, when hospitals were damaged - and 49 people were killed at the San Fernando Veterans Administration Hospital after two main buildings crumbled.

The hospital industry is protesting aspects of the law, saying that with more than half the state's hospitals operating in the red, financial assistance is needed, Lott said.

HOSPITAL BUILDINGS RATED

State law mandates that hospital buildings posing risk of collapse in a strong earthquake must be retrofitted, replaced or removed by 2008. Hospitals across the regions reported how their buildings rate.

Hospital Number Building

of buildings to retrofit

Community Memorial Hospital 9 4

Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles 6 2

Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center 3 3

Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center 8 3

Glendale Adventist Medical Center 14 6

Glendale Memorial Hospital & Health Center10 7

Granada Hills Community Hospital 12 2

Hollywood Community Hospital of Van Nuys N/A N/A

Kaiser Foundation Hospital-Panorama City Hospital 6 3

Kaiser Foundation Hospital-Woodland Hills 4 0

Los Angeles County Olive View UCLA Medical Center  3 0

Los Angeles County USC Medical Center 10 10

Los Robles Regional Medical Center 5 2

Mission Community Hospital Panorama Campus 3 3

Motion Picture & Television Hospital 5 3

Northridge Hospital Medical Center  10 2

Northridge Hospital Medical Center 3 1

Providence Holy Cross Medical Center  9 2

Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Center 9 7

Simi Valley Hospital & Health Care Services 10 6

St. Joseph Medical Center  13 4

St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital  5 1

UCLA Medical Center 1111

Valley Presbyterian Hospital 72

Ventura County Medical Center  7 2

Verdugo Hills Hospital 4 2

West Hills Regional Medical Center 2 1

West Valley Hospital and Health Center N/A N/A

Westlake Outpatient Medical Center N/A N/A

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Box: HOSPITAL BUILDINGS RATED (see text)