The state Department of Public Health said these cases of “retained foreign objects” accounted for 14 percent of all preventable errors logged during the past two years. The department reports avoidable adverse events to the public and collects fines for them from hospitals.
The department is proposing to use $800,000 from the fines to study how hospitals could reduce their risks of such errors.
The department also reported increases of 100 percent or more in the number of surgeries performed on the wrong patient and sexual assaults on a patient, but these changes were based on relatively small numbers. Serious pressure ulcers and deaths associated from falls also increased.
Here are percent changes in preventable adverse events from FY 2008 to FY 2009, as reported by the Department of Public Health:
- Surgery performed on the wrong part of the body – minus 10 percent
- Surgery performed on the wrong patient – plus 100 percent
- Retention of foreign object – plus 29 percent
- Death or serious disability form a medical error – minus 6 percent
- Later-stage pressure ulcers – plus 78 percent
- Death associated with a fall – plus 36 percent
- Sexual assault on a patient – plus 131 percent
Read the San Francisco Chronicle’s report on preventable errors.
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