Maine Releases Latest Tally of Hospital Errors

A new state report shows mixed results when it comes to serious errors, injuries and accidents in Maine hospitals and other health care facilities.

The Department of Health and Human Services has required hospitals, surgery centers, kidney centers and intermediate care facilities to report “sentinel events” since 2004.

The Sun-Journal reports that the latest figures, for 2012, show two people had the wrong body part operated on, 14 had something left behind in their bodies during surgery and 36 died in a hospital setting of something they weren’t expected to die from.

The wrong body part figure was unchanged from 2011. The number of items left behind during surgery dropped by two, while the number of unanticipated deaths dropped by 25.