Citation

Alesch DJ, Petak WJ. Nat. Hazards Rev. 2004; 5(2): 89-96.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, American Society of Civil Engineers)

DOI

10.1061/(ASCE)1527-6988(2004)5:2(89)

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Implementing public policy rarely flows either automatically or smoothly following enactment. This paper is a midstream analysis of a study of the implementation of seismic safety legislation in California aimed at strengthening or eliminating older acute-care hospitals. SB 1953, as it has become known, is legislation requiring that owners of acute-care hospitals built before 1973 strengthen those structures to meet contemporary seismic safety standards. Implementing the Act has been troublesome for both health-care administrators and regulators in large part because of the complex, dynamic, and unpredictable environment within which health-care organizations found themselves in the years following enactment of the policy.