That's the actual guidance Kaiser Permanente's Santa Clara facility is giving patients right now after confirmed cases of Legionella — the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease, a serious and sometimes fatal form of pneumonia — were linked to the hospital's water system. Appointments are still on. Patients are still being seen. The doors are wide open. Just, you know, don't hydrate from any of the taps.

Let that sink in. A hospital — a place where immunocompromised people, pregnant women, newborns, and the elderly congregate — has a known waterborne pathogen in its system and the response is essentially "BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle)."

One Bay Area resident who was recently hospitalized there said they received a message from Kaiser about possible Legionella exposure during their stay. "I haven't had any symptoms, fortunately, but it was a worrisome message to receive," they said. Another local pointed out the obvious: if Kaiser knows the water is unsafe, why aren't they at least offering free bottled water to patients? "Especially for people who don't know about Legionella," they noted.

It's a fair question. Not everyone walks into a hospital appointment doom-scrolling public health alerts. Some people — particularly those already dealing with a medical issue — might just grab a cup from the nearest fountain without thinking twice.

And this apparently comes on the heels of a system-wide computer outage just days earlier. Infrastructure isn't exactly having a great week at Kaiser Santa Clara.

Look, Legionella contamination happens. Water systems are complex. But the response matters. Keeping a facility fully operational while telling patients to fend for themselves on something as basic as safe drinking water is the kind of cost-minimizing, liability-hedging move that makes people lose trust in large healthcare institutions. At minimum, station bottled water at every entrance. Alert every patient walking through the door. And if the contamination is serious enough to warrant "don't drink the water" advisories, maybe it's serious enough to warrant rescheduling non-urgent appointments until the system is remediated.

Patients deserve better than a shrug and a BYOB policy.