Rapid visual screening for seismic evaluation of RC hospital buildings

In this work, a rapid visual screening method is proposed to determine a Safety Index for hospital buildings. The newly developed procedure provides a risk index by evaluating the main parameters that affect the vulnerability of buildings during a systematic sidewalk survey. The procedure has been applied to two Italian hospitals located in different seismic areas, and the results are compared with a similar index obtained from a push-over analysis. Finally, the proposed RVS method has also been applied to two hospitals damaged by the 2009 L'Aquila Earthquake and the 2012 Emilia Earthquake.