Minnesota hospitals ahead of curve in safety efforts

Minnesota hospitals are getting nearly $3 million from the federal government as part of a national grant to improve safety in the nation's health care centers.

The Obama Administration wants hospitals to reduce medical mistakes by 40 percent and reduce preventable hospital readmissions 20 percent by the end of 2013.

Jan Hennings of the Minnesota Hospital Association said Minnesota was already much further ahead of other states in tracking such mistakes and learning how to prevent them. Minnesota's medical centers have been tracking adverse events for nearly eight years.

"We were already doing quite a bit, so what this grant will allow us to do is to build off of the good things that Minnesota hospitals have done with its really strong partnerships with all the health organizations in the state," Hennings said.

Minnesota was one of 26 states to receive funding under the $218 million program. The Partnership for Patients program will also distribute information about what works and doesn't work in reducing errors throughout the U.S.

"We found through sharing of information what kinds of trends there are so we can retool and rechange the processes and look at how these things happen and then prevent them from happening again," Hennings said.

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