Bill Text: CA AB852 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Driver's licenses: applications.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Passed) 2014-09-19 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 447, Statutes of 2014. [AB852 Detail]

Download: California-2013-AB852-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 852	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Quirk

                        FEBRUARY 21, 2013

   An act to add Section 129788 to the Health and Safety Code,
relating to health facilities.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 852, as introduced, Quirk. Skilled nursing facility
construction, alteration, or addition: review.
   Existing law, the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic
Safety Act of 1983, requires design and construction standards for
hospital buildings that house patients who have less than the
capacity of normally healthy persons to protect themselves. Existing
law also requires that those standards specify that hospitals must be
reasonably capable of providing services to the public after a
disaster.
   Existing law requires the Office of Statewide Health Planning and
Development (OSHPD) to approve or reject all plans for the
construction or alteration of a hospital building. Existing law
specifically requires the office, contingent upon an appropriation in
the annual Budget Act, to establish a program for training fire and
life safety officers to facilitate the timely performance of the
office's duties and responsibilities relating to the review of plans
and specifications pertaining to the design and observation of
construction of hospital buildings, as specified. Existing law
authorizes the office to establish other training programs as
necessary to ensure that a sufficient number of qualified persons are
available to facilitate the timely performance of the office's
duties and responsibilities, as specified.
   This bill would set specific OSHPD review and approval timeframes
for skilled nursing facility construction, alteration, or addition
and would authorize the office to assess a reasonable fee for this
review. The bill would authorize the office to seek outside
assistance through contracts with qualified professional
architectural or engineering firms to meet the review turnaround
times required by this bill.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) A variety of factors have contributed to making health care
construction costs in California among the highest in the nation. The
costs are driven by the escalating price of raw materials, high
demand for skilled labor, and the complexity of design, plan review,
and approval of skilled nursing facility construction.
   (b) Skilled nursing facilities are licensed health care facilities
that care for the state's most fragile and vulnerable citizens.
   (c) The physical infrastructure and related systems of these
licensed health facilities are governed by building and fire and life
safety code requirements regulated by the Office of Statewide Health
Planning and Development, the Office of the State Fire Marshal, and
the State Department of Public Health.
   (d) As the industry moves to update the aging health care
infrastructure, incorporate advances in medical technology, implement
a modern health care delivery system, and improve electronic medical
records systems, health care construction activity will increase to
unseen levels, creating additional economic pressure on the skilled
nursing and construction industry.
   (e) Licensed health care facilities are required to go through a
building application and plan check process under the jurisdiction of
the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.
   (f) This process is bureaucratically efficient, but is subject to
inherent delays impacting timely approvals of projects. Although the
Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development has developed
internal policies that set timeframes for plan review and approval,
these policies are targets rather than enforceable requirements.
   (g) Improving the efficiency of health care building plan review
and construction efforts will not only reduce the time to design,
review, and complete facility construction, but also lower the cost
of the project and reduce overall cost pressures on the health care
system, allowing more resources to be directed to direct patient
services.
   (h) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature to codify the
timeframes and due dates for completion by the Office of Statewide
Health Planning and Development of the review of facility
construction documents and to require the office to notify applicants
of the anticipated date the review will be completed and returned to
them.
  SEC. 2.  Section 129788 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
   129788.  (a) Documents submitted to the office for new
construction of, alteration of, or additions to, health facilities
licensed pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 1250, shall be
reviewed and approved within the timeframes established by this
section.
   (b) Upon receipt of the documents submitted pursuant to
subdivision (a), each submittal shall be logged in by the office and
given an preliminary review within 48 hours by architects, engineers,
and fire and life safety officers of the office to determine if the
submittal is complete.
   (c) For projects not qualifying for rapid review under Section
129856, the Facilities Development Division shall meet the following
timeframes:
   (1) First review of new projects and deferred items shall be
completed within 30 days.
   (2) Backchecks shall be completed within 15 days.
   (3) Amended construction documents shall be completed within 15
days.
   (d) New projects that qualify for review by the Rapid Review Unit
shall be completed within 15 business days. Projects qualify if they
are new projects up to a maximum estimated construction cost between
one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) and one hundred seventy-five
thousand dollars ($175,000), dependent upon the unit's fluctuating
workload. Rapid review does not apply to any of the following:
   (1) Existing projects that were initially reviewed by a regional
office, including backchecks, post approval documents (PADs), and
deferred items (DI's).
   (2) Projects requiring an alternate method of compliance.
   (3) Projects having equipment missing required project numbers for
special seismic certification.
   (e) For projects that include primary gravity or lateral load
elements or systems, structural shall be completed within 30 days for
first reviews and 15 days for deferred item reviews. Backchecks for
these projects shall be completed within 15 days.
   (f) The review schedules for managed projects will be negotiated
between the office and the applicants.
   (g) The office shall charge a reasonable fee for the review and
approval of plans submitted pursuant to this subdivision. This fee
shall be based on the estimated cost, but shall not exceed the
reasonable cost of the entire phased review and approval process for
those plans.
   (h) The project cost threshold under subdivision (a) of Section
129880 shall be increased to one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000)
without regard to the cost of equipment or other items not related to
the actual repair or construction costs.
   (i) In order to meet the review turnaround times required by this
section, the office may seek outside assistance through contracts
with qualified professional architectural or engineering firms.