The Northridge Earthquake – the Catalyst for Resilience of Healthcare in California

Episode 6 of the Northridge 30th Anniversary Webinar Series:
The Northridge Earthquake – 30 Years Later – A Catalyst for Engineering Resilient Communities

Series Partners:

• American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Infrastructure Resilience Division
• ASCE Los Angeles Section
• Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Southern California Chapter
• Structural Engineers Association of Southern California (SEOASC)
• Earthquake Country Alliance (ECA), led by the Statewide California Earthquake Center

Episode 6 Overview:

Like the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake and earlier seismic events, the 1994 Northridge Earthquake was another reminder that the health care system had critical fragilities and shortcomings in its ability to provide reliable critical services in a time of emergency. Just months after the Northridge earthquake, the State of California enacted what is known as Senate Bill 1953 (SB 1953) which was an amendment to the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Seismic Safety Act of 1983 (commonly known as the Alquist Act). The Alquist Act established a seismic safety building standards program under the Department of Health Care Access and Information’s (HCAI) jurisdiction for hospitals built on or after March 7, 1973. The Act was initiated because of the loss of life incurred due to the collapse of hospitals during the Sylmar earthquake of 1971. The Act emphasizes that essential facilities, such as hospitals, should remain operational after an earthquake. Hospitals built in accordance with the standards of the Act resisted the January 1994 Northridge earthquake with minimal structural damage, while several facilities built prior to the Act experienced major structural damage and had to be evacuated. However, certain nonstructural components of the hospitals did incur damage, even facilities built in accordance with the structural provisions of the Act. The provisions and subsequent regulation language of SB 1953 amended the Act to address the issues of survivability of both nonstructural and structural components of hospital buildings after a seismic event. Therefore, the ultimate public safety benefit of the Act is to have general acute care hospital buildings that not only are capable of remaining intact after a seismic event, but also capable of continued operation and provision of acute care medical services after a seismic event. SB 1953’s purpose is to provide resiliency to the healthcare system to be able to provide the needed critical care services when disasters like earthquakes occur. This webinar will provide an overview of the SB 1953 program and present the progress of the program towards its ultimate goal of providing resilience in healthcare in California and be a model for other communities that face similar hazards.

Episode 6 Presenter:

Marshall Lew, Ph.D., G.E., Geotechnical Consultant and Former Member of the California Hospital Building Safety Board (1999-2006 and 2015-2023)

Dr. Lew has been a practicing geotechnical engineer for over 47 years and has been involved in numerous hospital projects. He has been the geotechnical engineer of record for hospital projects for Kaiser Permanente, UCLA Medical Center, Cedars-Sinal Medical Center, Hoag Hospital, Providence-St. John’s Medical Center, Torrance Medical Center, Henry Mayo Medical Center, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, White Memorial Medical Center and others. He has been active in new construction and in hospital upgrades and seismic improvements to meet SB 1953 requirements. Dr. Lew was also a member of the Hospital Building Safety Board (HBSB) from 1999 to 2006 and from 2016-2023, which is an advisory board to the State of California’s Department of Health Care Access and Information which regulates hospital design and construction in California. During his time with the HBSB, he has been involved with the development of the regulations to carry out SB 1953 and has been involved in reviewing code changes and policies regarding hospital design and resiliency. Dr. Lew has been a member of EERI since 1978 and served as Secretary-Treasurer of EERI from 2006 to 2012 and was selected as an Honorary Member of EERI in 2018.

REGISTER TO PARTICIPATE

There is no cost to attend.

WEBINAR RECORDING & PRESENTATION SLIDES

Workshop Presentation Slides (PDF; some content shared live by presenters may not be not included)

ALL EPISODES:

• Episode 1: The 1994 Northridge Earthquake – Science and Engineering Aspects (Feb. 14)
• Episode 2: Insurance Issues and Impacts Following the Northridge Earthquake (April 23)
• Episode 3: 30 Years of Progress in Quantification of Seismic Hazards (June 12)
• Episode 4: An Unexpected Milestone in Real-Time Loss Estimation (July 24)
• Episode 5: Legacies of the Northridge Earthquake in Disaster Recovery Planning & Policy (Aug. 28)
• Episode 6: The Northridge Earthquake: the Catalyst for Resilience of Healthcare in California (Oct. 30)
• Episode 7: Lessons learned about business losses and economic recovery – The Northridge Earthquake as a catalyst for research and application (Nov. 13)

More episodes planned monthly through January 2025.

QUESTIONS: info@earthquakecountry.org