COUNTYWIDE : Hospital Adopts Missing Apostrophe

With its $50-million construction program progressing as scheduled, the administrators of Children’s Hospital of Orange County believed the time had come to finally let the public know that the facility belongs to the children.

The hospital announced Thursday that henceforth there would be an apostrophe in its name. Having had the grammatically incorrect title since it opened 25 years ago, hospital officials said there was nothing in the archives to account for the missing apostrophe.

“We decided that since we’re building a new complex, it would be a good time to change the name,” said hospital spokeswoman Maureen Williams at a brief press conference. “We feel the reason we don’t have one is because CHLA (Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles) didn’t have one.”

The old five-story tower that houses Children’s Hospital of Orange County was purchased in 1974 with the intention of converting it into a general acute-care hospital. But the structure did not meet state building code specifications for such conversion because there was an inadequate amount of space between the floors to accommodate ventilation and air-conditioning equipment.

The new six-story Children’s Hospital complex, being built next to the existing facilities, is scheduled for completion in October, 1991, Williams said.