Facility Understaffed, Probe of Baby Mix-Up Finds

St. Joseph Hospital of Orange, which sent newborns home with the wrong parents on Valentine’s Day, has consistently failed to keep enough nurses on duty in the maternity ward, according to two state reports made public Thursday.

Staffing problems over the last year continued into January and February, state inspectors found, although they did not specifically blame insufficient staffing for the Valentine’s mix-up and several others. The others were corrected while the infants were still in the hospital.

The reports cite the hospital for failing to comply with its own staff requirements and found maternity nurses on occasion handled twice as many patients as hospital policy allows. But they also conclude that the hospital has since proposed adequate steps to correct the problems.