Print this page Incremental Seismic Rehabilitation of Hospitals
Steven G. Liescheidt, P.E., CCS, CCPR
Course Outline
This three hour online course discusses the greatest earthquake risk is associated with existing hospital buildings that were designed and constructed before the use of modern building codes. For many parts of the United States, this includes buildings built as recently as the early 1990s. Although vulnerable hospital buildings need to be replaced with safe, new construction or rehabilitated to correct deficiencies, for some healthcare organizations new construction is limited, at times severely, by budgetary constraints, and seismic rehabilitation is expensive and disruptive. However, incremental seismic rehabilitation, an innovative approach that phases in a series of discrete rehabilitation actions over a period of several years, is an effective, affordable, and non-disruptive strategy for responsible mitigation action.
This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of course materials.
Learning
Objective
At the conclusion of this course, the student will learn about:
- Critical decisions for earthquake safety in hospitals;
- Incremental seismic rehabilitation of existing hospitals;
- Planning and managing the process of earthquake risk reduction;
- Integrating efforts of facility management, risk management and financial management;
- Due diligence analysis;
- Seismic screening;
- Seismic evaluation;
- Risk management reduction policy development; and
- Staging seismic rehabilitation increments.
Intended Audience
This course is intended for mechanical and structural engineers.
Benefit for Attendee
Attendee of this course will be able to better understand the critical decisions required for the design of earthquake safety in hospitals including planning and managing the process for earthquake risk management in existing hospital buildings.
Course Introduction
The manual used in this course provides healthcare organizations with the information necessary to assess the seismic vulnerability of their buildings and to implement a program of incremental seismic rehabilitation for those buildings. The manual consists of three parts: Critical Decisions for Earthquake Safety in Hospitals; Planning and Managing the Process for Earthquake Risk Reduction in Existing Hospital Buildings and Tools for Implementing Incremental Seismic Rehabilitation in Existing Hospital Buildings.
Course Content
This course is primarily based on Incremental Seismic Rehabilitation of Hospital Buildings, FEMA 396, December 2003:
Incremental Seismic Rehabilitation of Hospitals
(http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=1981)
Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.
Course Summary
This course is intended to assist engineers and healthcare organization personnel responsible for the funding and operation of existing hospital facilities across the United States. Healthcare organizations face a wide array of risks. Earthquakes are low-probability high-consequence events. Although they may occur only once in the life of a building, they can have devastating, irreversible consequences. Failure to address earthquake risk leaves the healthcare organization exposed to potential losses, disruption, and liability for deaths and injuries.
Related Links
For additional technical information related to this subject, please visit the following websites:
Federal Emergency Management Agency – www.fema.gov
American Society of Civil Engineers – www.asce.com
Vibration Isolation & Seismic Control Manufacturers – www.viscma.com
Quiz
Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.
DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.
