If you buy equipment for a California hospital, you will eventually hit this. The device is chosen, the budget is approved, the PO is cut. Then facilities asks whether it has been through HCAI, and the project stops while everyone works out what that means.
Here is what is actually being asked.
What HCAI is checking
California hospitals have to stay standing and stay working after an earthquake. That applies to the building, and it applies to the equipment inside it. HCAI (formerly OSHPD) is the state agency that reviews both.
For a new device, the rules live in a document called PIN 68. It sets out how equipment gets categorized and what has to appear on the construction drawings before anything is installed.
The two numbers that decide most of it
For equipment that is attached to the building, two numbers drive the answer:
- How much it weighs, fully loaded and ready to run
- How high its center of mass sits, measured from the floor
Under 400 pounds with a center of mass below 4 feet, the anchoring details go on the drawings and engineering calculations do not have to be submitted for review. Above either threshold, calculations are required.
That is the whole test for most equipment. The problem is that center of mass rarely appears on a spec sheet, so it becomes a scramble halfway through the project.
How the device is installed changes the answer
Categories in PIN 68 depend on how equipment is set up, not what it does. Something bolted to a wall is treated differently from something on a cart. Something hard-wired into the building is treated differently from something that plugs into a normal outlet. Same device, different requirements, based purely on installation.
This is worth settling early, because it determines everything that follows.
"Essential equipment" is the hospital's call, not the vendor's
Some equipment is designated essential, meaning the hospital could not keep operating without it after a disaster. Essential equipment faces a higher bar, and in some cases needs formal seismic certification backed by shake-table testing. That is a much larger documentation package.
Here is the part people get wrong: the California Building Code puts that decision with the facility. A manufacturer can provide the specifications. A manufacturer cannot decide its own device is non-essential.
What to ask your vendor
Before the drawings are finished, get these five things in writing:
- Operating weight, fully loaded
- Center of mass, measured from the floor
- Mounting and attachment instructions
- Whether it plugs in or hard-wires
- Confirmation of how your facility classifies the device
Four of those come from the vendor. If they cannot produce them within a week, that tells you something about how the installation will go.
Common questions
Does every device need seismic calculations? No. It depends on how the equipment is installed, what it weighs, and how high its center of mass is.
Is HCAI the same as OSHPD? Yes. The agency was renamed, but the industry still uses both. HCAI's own documents still reference OSHPD in places.
Who decides if equipment is essential? The hospital, under the state building code. Not the vendor.
Sources
- HCAI Policy Intent Notice 68 (equipment categories, weight and center-of-mass thresholds, building code definitions in Appendix A)
- HCAI Codes and Regulations
- HCAI Seismic Performance Ratings
- HCAI Special Seismic Certification Preapproval program
General information only. Requirements for a specific installation are determined by the facility, the design professional of record, and the HCAI reviewer.
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