Report: Errors Increase in Minnesota Hospitals but Deaths Decrease

An annual report on patient safety shows more errors but fewer deaths in Minnesota hospitals in the past year.

The Department of Health found 277 so-called “adverse events” in categories long been tracked, such as wrong-site surgery or foreign objects left in a patient.

That was up slightly from 258 a year ago.

Deaths fell from 15 a year ago to eight.

The report added four new categories, including death or injury during a low-risk pregnancy and simple failure to communicate test results properly. Those new categories pushed adverse events to 308 and deaths to 13. Four of those deaths came during labor and delivery in low-risk pregnancies.

Officials say the new categories were added to conform to a national set of health care standards.

Topics Minnesota Medical Professional Liability