Deadly risks
Letter from St. Helena
January 16, 2012
Reporters Emily Bazar and Kelley Weiss submitted several questions about this story to St. Helena Hospital. Here is the hospital’s response.
Death by complication
State issues improved guide to hospital infections
January 6, 2012
California health officials Friday unveiled new hospital-acquired infection rates for hundreds of private and public hospitals and vowed to become a national leader in making that data public for consumers to review.
The barrage of reports appears...
Fault Lines
Citrus Valley looks to retrofits to remedy high collapse risk
October 29, 2011
The main building at the Queen of the Valley campus of Citrus Valley Medical Center has a 30.36 percent chance of collapsing in a major earthquake, state regulators have found.
That is the second worst rating among hospital buildings statewide that...
Fault Lines
Hospitals stand on shaky future
October 29, 2011
When the 1994 Northridge earthquake damaged 11 nearby hospitals, California legislators issued an ultimatum to hospital owners statewide: Fix your highest-risk buildings by New Year's Day 2008 or the state will shut them down.
The law might have...
Fault Lines
Huntington Hospital years away from plans to address at-risk buildings
October 29, 2011
Though Huntington Memorial Hospital opened a new patient care tower in 2008, the 626-bed, not-for-profit hospital still has at least half a dozen buildings at risk of collapse in the event of a major earthquake.
A state report from 2010 says seven...
Fault Lines
PIH's coming tower to replace at-risk facilities
October 29, 2011
A new 6-story tower in the works at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital will replace some of the Whittier hospital's buildings most at risk of collapse in the event of an earthquake.
The tower - slated for opening late next year - will house the...
Fault Lines
Region's small and medium-sized hospitals scramble to make retrofits
October 29, 2011
More than a dozen buildings at some of the region's small and medium-sized hospitals pose a "significant" risk of collapsing and becoming a danger to the public in the event of an earthquake, according to the state.
These buildings have received a...
Fault Lines
Dig Deeper
October 17, 2011
State regulators do not provide an online posting of hospital buildings’ “collapsibility” ratings. California Watch journalist Christina Jewett compiled such a list in 2010.
Fault Lines
Five of St. Bernardine buildings have lowest rating
October 17, 2011
Like many Catholic hospitals, 80-year-old St. Bernardine Medical Center is confronting the realities of an older urban facility and a tradition of treating the uninsured.
Its 463-bed campus in San Bernardino is a patchwork of old Spanish-style...
Fault Lines
Key buildings still have lowest rankings at Pomona Valley
October 17, 2011
Not long ago, more than half the buildings at Pomona Valley Regional Medical Center were considered at high risk of crumbling in a major earthquake.