California Hospital Takes Botched Operations Seriously

WHO: St. Joseph Hospital in Orange County.
WHAT: The California Department of Public Health is investigating St. Joseph for conducting three ‘wrong site’ operations since January 2006. Botched surgeries include operating on a patient’s good knee and making an incision on the wrong side of a patient’s head.
WHERE: Orange hospital under investigation for operating room error [L.A. Times]
THE QUOTE: “Members of the clinical team involved in these cases have been deeply affected, and as a hospital we take this very seriously and regret that it happened,” [Dr. Raymond Casciari, St. Joseph’s chief medical officer] said.

“Taking it seriously” is a phrase companies use over and over again in public statements whenever they have bad PR. Our series of posts on occurrences of the phrase is our attempt to question how seriously companies are really taking these matters if every time they trot out this phrase by rote.

(Photo: Getty)

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.