(Indianapolis, Ind.) - There were fewer mistakes made at Indiana hospitals and doctors’ offices in 2009 according to a new report from the Indiana Department of Health.

The department’s Medical Error Reporting System annual report shows 94 preventable errors were made in 2009, a 10.5 percent drop from the 105 errors each reported in 2008 and 2007.

Of the errors, 89 occurred at hospitals and 5 occurred at ambulatory surgery centers.

The report witnessed a significant decrease in the number of reported bed sores at 22. The decrease in bed sores - medically termed as pressure ulcers - was credited to the Indiana Pressure Ulcer Initiative which was practiced by more than 230 health care facilities statewide between June 2008 and September 2010.

"The purpose of the Medical Error Reporting System is to identify areas for improvement and then use that data to focus our efforts on improving quality of care for Hoosiers.  MERS identified pressure ulcers as a problem, so we launched the Indiana Pressure Ulcer Initiative.  The decrease in the number of pressure ulcers is likely linked to that initiative," said State Health Commissioner Gregory Larkin, M.D.

Indiana’s most common medical error in 2009 may raise some eyebrows. There were 29 instances of a foreign object being left inside a patient following surgery.

Seventeen errors were for surgery performed on the wrong body part.

LINKS:

Indiana State Department of Health - http://www.in.gov/isdh/