Community Medical Center in Long Beach will no longer be able to treat patients needing acute care after mid-2019, officials said Monday, citing seismic studies that show a threat of damage in the event of a major earthquake.

A fault running below the hospital site at 1720 Termino Ave. is larger and more active than previously known, hospital officials said. That means the 158-bed Community Medical Center Long Beach will not be in line with state government’s earthquake safety requirements as of June 30, 2019.

8/4/00 – Long Beach Community Hospital in Long Beach. Photo by Steven Georges/Press-Telegram

Community Hospital in Long Beach will not be able to offer acute care after mid-2019. Community Medical Center Long Beach today announced that it has informed the City of Long Beach of recent findings from independent seismic studies, confirming that beneath the hospital is a larger, active fault than originally was known. The hospital building itself and land are owned by the city of Long Beach. Long Beach Calif., Monday, November 6, 2017. (Photo by Stephen Carr, Press-Telegram / SCNG )

Community Medical Center Long Beach today announced that it has informed the City of Long Beach of recent findings from independent seismic studies and may be closing. Chuck Bennett/Daily Breeze/SCNG

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Community Medical Center Long Beach today announced that it has informed the City of Long Beach of recent findings from independent seismic studies and may be closing. Chuck Bennett/Daily Breeze/SCNG

Community Hospital in Long Beach may be closing. Community Medical Center Long Beach today announced that it has informed the City of Long Beach of recent findings from independent seismic studies, confirming that beneath the hospital is a larger, active fault than originally was known. The hospital building itself and land are owned by the city of Long Beach. Long Beach Calif., Monday, November 6, 2017. ( Photo by Stephen Carr, Daily Breeze / SCNG )





Although it’s still possible for some kinds of medical services to be offered at the complex, Community Medical Center’s providers will lose their abilities to deliver emergency care or other acute hospital services.

“It cannot continue as acute care. The question now is, what can we do at the site,” hospital Chief Executive John Bishop said in a telephone interview Monday.

Community Medical Center, which is 93 years old, is part of the Long Beach-based MemorialCare network of hospitals. Long Beach’s city government owns its land and structures.

MemorialCare managers are open to the prospect of maintaining a presence at the Community Medical Center site, Bishop said. Whether that happens, however, depends upon Long Beach city officials’ demands for the site.

Long Beach’s City Council is scheduled to discuss the situation behind closed doors Tuesday, before the public portion of the council’s regularly-scheduled meeting is set to begin. California law allows city councils to meet privately for real estate negotiations.

“The whole thing is fluid at this point,” interim city spokesman Kevin Lee said.

City Hall also issued a formal statement on the situation:

“The City of Long Beach is saddened to hear of the seismic challenges of the facility and the future loss of acute care hospital services at Community Hospital due to state seismic regulations,” the statement read. “The city of Long Beach is committed to working with Community Medical Center Long Beach and members of the community during this transition to examine the best options for the site and to determine how critical medical services will continue to be provided to the community.”

A state law formally known as the Alfred E. Alquist Seismic Safety Act dates back to 1973, following the calamity of the San Fernando-Sylmar Earthquake of 1971. That quake killed more than 60 people, including more than 40 people who died after San Fernando Veterans Administration Hospital facilities fell down. Three other people perished in the destruction of a six-story structure at Olive View Community Hospital in Sylmar.

Hospitals built to that law’s standards generally resisted damage during the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, although patients had to be evacuated from older medical facilities, according to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. Gov. Pete Wilson signed legislation later in 1994 requiring hospital owners to perform seismic evaluations and also authorizing state government to set safety regulations.

Initially, Sacramento demanded hospitals to be at the “life safety level” — likely to remain standing during a quake, but at risk of being non-functional after severe shaking — by the beginning of 2008 in order to continue delivery of acute care services. Lawmakers later, however, allowed extensions to go as late as the beginning of 2020.

The “life safety level” is the second lowest of five seismic performance categories. Multiple structures at Community Medical Center are in the lowest category, which means there is a 1.2 percent probability of structural collapse.

State officials had given Community Medical Center until mid-2019 to have its campus at the life safety level. Although other structures there are in the top two tiers of seismic safety ratings, Bishop said the new studies show it’s not feasible to engage in further spending that would be intended to keep Community Medical Center open as an acute care hospital after that deadline.

The need for expensive seismic upgrades at the facility, then known as Community Hospital of Long Beach, were well known when MemorialCare acquired the complex in 2011. The deal required City Council approval, and earthquake safety retrofits were expected to cost some $16 million.

MemorialCare has invested some $22 million at Community Medical Center since the 2011 deal, Bishop said. That figure also includes funding for medical programs there.

Community Medical Center managers also reported in their announcement on Monday that an outside consultant’s review of local medical needs shows that on a given day, seven other hospitals near Community Medical Center have, combined, about 800 available beds.

“Therefore, the conclusion is that nearby area hospitals could absorb the number of acute care hospital patients currently served by Community Medical Center,” the announcement read.

Community Medical Center’s employment roster amounts to some 400 full-time workers, Bishop said. Employees will be offered chances to transfer to other MemorialCare facilities or help finding jobs with other employers.