Minnesota hospitals and surgery centers recorded 277 adverse events, including 92 serious injuries and eight deaths from October 2013 to October 2014, up from the 258 events reported in the same 2012-2013 time period but down from 15 deaths reported during that time.
The Minnesota Department of Public Health released the data in its annual Adverse Health Events report Thursday.
The most common adverse events were:
- Pressure ulcers (107)
- Falls associated with serious injury or death (79)
- Foreign objects left in patients after procedures (33)
For the October 2013 to October 2014 reporting period, Minnesota hospitals started tracking four new adverse events. They were not included in the comparison, but with these added in, Minnesota hospitals and surgical centers had 308 adverse health events. The new categories are as follows:
- Irretrievable loss of an irreplaceable biological specimen (20)
- Neonatal death or serious injury associated with labor and delivery in a low-risk pregnancy (6)
- Death or serious injury resulting from failure to follow up or communicate lab, pathology or radiology test results (5)
- Death or serious injury of a patient associated with the introduction of a metallic object into the MRI area (0)
To improve patient safety in 2015, provider organizations are expected to pilot strategies for reducing lost or damaged biological specimens, implement best practices for improving test result communications and effectively identify fragments of instruments and wires to reduce the number of them left in patients, according to the health department.
Minnesota is one of just 28 states that track adverse events and one of three to publicly report events at a facility level.