There were 1,538 preventable medical errors reported at California hospitals last fiscal year, according to regulators at the state Department of Public Health. Regulators plan to release a report in coming months analyzing statewide trends in preventable medical errors, said officials from the public health department's Center for Health Care Quality. They also plan to spend $800,000 of the fines collected from hospitals this year on research and prevention of foreign objects left behind during surgery. Last year, the department spent $300,000 of the fines on assessing, among other things, whether hospitals are underreporting errors, the Los Angeles Times reports.
