Study: Minnesota Reporting System Cuts Hospital Errors

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Minnesota health officials say the rate of preventable errors in hospitals and surgery centers continued to decline last year.

It fell 18 percent, thanks mostly to improved performance in preventing bed sores. Surgical errors such as wrong-site operations or foreign objects left in patients also declined.

But health officials say deaths from errors stayed about the same -- 14 two years ago and 15 last year.

The Department of Health report is required by state law. It's the 10th year it has been prepared. Health officials say the reporting has helped change a mindset that errors were just part of doing business.