State Let Damaged Hospital Remain Open : Recovery: Seismic panel criticizes safety agency for not heeding reports of its own engineers that Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills could collapse in another temblor.

SACRAMENTO —  The state’s chief agency for hospital safety allowed a San Fernando Valley hospital to remain open even though the agency’s inspectors reported severe damage to its steel frame and warned it could collapse in an earthquake, state records show.

The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development permitted Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills to continue operating while undergoing extensive repairs to structural damage suffered in the Northridge earthquake.

Although the $10-million project is now three-quarters complete and the worst section of the four-story main hospital building has been fixed, the fact that Holy Cross has continued housing patients has ignited concern among members of the state Seismic Safety Commission.

To some seismic safety commissioners, who are appointed by the governor, the case of Holy Cross shows that the health planning agency is too timid about using its authority.

The case also illustrates how the assessment of damaged steel-frame buildings is still an inexact science and the subject of an ongoing debate. It is a problem with urgent consequences: Structural engineers have found cracks in the welded beam connections of at least 120 buildings, from high-rises to two-story office courts, in the wake of the Northridge quake. Officials expect damage to be found in many more.

Commission member Pat Snyder demanded to know “how it was judged that this building can stay open and others in the same condition cannot.” Snyder was alluding to a commercial steel-frame building in West Los Angeles that suffered structural damage and was recently voluntarily evacuated by its property managers.

“I have heard engineers describe the damage at Holy Cross in such terms as ‘substantial’ or ‘severe.’ Those are the adjectives used,” Snyder said. “It was not described as minor or insignificant.”

The state health planning agency faces related criticism for delays in getting structural engineers out in the field immediately after the Northridge earthquake, documents show.

Holy Cross officials say state records overstate damage to their hospital. They said structural engineers they hired determined that the hospital is safe to occupy. If anything, hospital officials said, they deserve praise for the quality of their reconstruction efforts.

“At no time did Holy Cross’ structural integrity drop below code requirements,” Vice President Victoria Snyder said in a statement. “The hospital’s initial decision to remain open after structural damage was identified was based on the expertise of our structural engineers and agreement of (the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development).”

The Jan. 17, 1994, Northridge quake hit hard at Holy Cross, where the main hospital building was constructed to double-strength safety standards after its predecessor was heavily damaged in the devastating 1971 Sylmar temblor.

Water damage immediately after the Northridge quake forced evacuation of the building’s 257 beds. The facility partially reopened in time for a Jan. 24 visit by Gov. Pete Wilson and resumed most operations on Feb. 10.

It was not until late March that engineers began scrutinizing the hospital’s steel-frame structure, which they first assumed had held up well in the quake. State officials note that Holy Cross’ condition was not unique and mirrored results found at scores of other steel-frame buildings in the region.

According to Bill Staehlin, a principal structural engineer at the state health planning and development office, the closer look revealed signs that a large number of joints in the steel frame had broken. “The building was found to be out of plumb,” Staehlin said. “It was no longer standing vertical.”

One of the first inspectors on the scene was Donald Jephcott, a consulting structural engineer who recalled Holy Cross’ state-of-the-art construction in the mid-1970s. In a rare move for the period, hospital owners had commissioned a high-tech study of how the ground might move in the event of another serious quake, he recalled.

In field notes filed to the statewide health planning office’s principal structural engineer, Sharad Pandya, on April 4, Jephcott described what he saw as “a serious situation.”

About 69%--or 16 of the 23 connection points--examined at that early stage showed some damage, his report said. “I am concerned about the ability of the building to resist seismic forces that this site is capable of generating in the case of another major earthquake,” Jephcott wrote.

According to a draft report prepared by the agency and submitted in August to the state Hospital Building Safety Board, the percentage of damaged connections did not drop much after further inspections.

The report said Holy Cross’ steel frame “suffered severe damage at a large number of joints.” Out of 209 joints inspected, the report said, 125 failures were found--a 60% rate.

“This is a very serious development since in hospitals and other large buildings, heavy welded connections have been used for many years,” the report noted.

Holy Cross’ Victoria Snyder said that, as far as the hospital is concerned, the figures in the report are incorrect. Furthermore, she said, the use of the word “failure” is misleading.

Of Holy Cross’ 283 connections, Snyder said, 24 required major repair, with nine of those categorized as “severely damaged.”

Those numbers clashed with findings reported to Snyder by the hospital’s engineers in an April 22, 1994, letter. At that date, 204 of the joints had been inspected, revealing distress to 92. Fifty of those suffered substantial damage, the letter said.

State officials said that the term “failed” joint is meant to include a range of damage, from small cracks to more significant problems, such as total separations.

By May 3, the state agency’s supervising structural engineer, Sam Moon, had issued a sternly worded letter to Holy Cross’ engineering firm, Taylor & Gaines, stating the hospital could collapse if another temblor struck.

Snyder of Holy Cross said Moon’s letter was premature, written before completion of the final evaluation of the building’s condition.

Pandya said the purpose of the letter was “to put the hospital on the spot to take responsibility for what was happening.”

After receiving plans detailing how Taylor & Gaines intended to go about the reconstruction, the agency was satisfied, Pandya said. “Then we felt there’s no reason not to believe in their opinion,” he said.

But members of the Seismic Safety Commission said it was a mystery why Pandya’s agency would retreat from the findings issued by its own experts. Commissioners voiced concerns over whether the agency, apparently dismissing its staff’s opinions, was adequately protecting the public.

They also questioned whether it was aware of its authority to shut down damaged acute care facilities.

Saying they need a tool with which to hold the agency more accountable in future cases, the commission drew up a recommendation for the governor to reiterate the agency’s emergency powers in clearer terms.

Critics of the inspection process note two connections between Holy Cross and the state agencies involved in its reconstruction.

To do its reconstruction, Holy Cross hired Pozzo Construction Co., whose president, E. P. St. Geme, is one of 16 members of the Hospital Building Safety Board appointed by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development’s director. Among other things, the board rules on appeals of cases involving seismic safety of hospitals.

Holy Cross also has selected the architectural firm HMC Group to do its master planning. HMC architect Gary McGavin is a member of the Seismic Safety Commission and had to excuse himself from discussion of Holy Cross during a Dec. 8 commission meeting, citing a possible conflict of interest.

Holy Cross may be the first known and highest profile case of substantial steel-frame damage in an area hospital, but it is not the only one. The Seismic Safety Commission’s report to be presented to the governor also says such damage is being uncovered at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in the Santa Clarita Valley.

In defense of his agency’s decision to allow Holy Cross to continue operating, Kurt Schaefer, facilities division deputy director said: “We are still struggling with what the best solution is” in evaluating damaged steel frames. “We know for a fact that these structures--even though the joints failed--they did not collapse. People weren’t killed, they weren’t maimed.”

Pandya said that because of a shortage of staff structural engineers, the agency has to rely on the opinions of independent firms hired by damaged facilities.

What staff structural engineers the agency does have seemed to be slow getting to the scene to size up hazards immediately after the Northridge earthquake.

According to a draft report distributed in August, the agency failed to get structural engineers to three badly shaken Los Angeles area facilities until the third day after the temblor.

The delay left the health care facilities open for business longer than was safe, the report said, noting that this constituted a violation of agency policies. The buildings weren’t “red-tagged,” or declared unfit for occupancy and evacuated, until Jan. 20, 1994.

The three facilities were identified as St. Johns Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica, AMI Tarzana Regional Medical Center in Tarzana and Berkeley East Convalescent Hospital in Santa Monica.

In a survey of hospital quake performance, Dr. Donald H. Cheu, a surgeon compiling data for the Seismic Safety Commission, said, “It is troublesome to note that some three days went by before someone red-tagged St. Johns Hospital.”