Surgery is a delicate skill. The doctors who perform the procedures undergo rigorous training to reduce the likelihood of life-threatening or life-ending mistakes. Still, mistakes occur. And as fine a reputation as many New Jersey hospitals may enjoy, they are not immune from the fallout of these kinds of errors.

This is brought to mind by one state's recent annual report on hospital procedural errors. While the cases didn't occur in New Jersey, they could. According to the report from this Upper Midwestern state, 26 surgical errors were recorded by hospitals last year. It's the highest number of mistakes reported in eight years of hospital self-reporting by facilities in Minnesota.

Ten of the cases involved mistakes with implants. In some instances, patients received the incorrect joint replacement. Others involved problems with breast implants. Yet others involved cataract lenses.

State officials say there were a lot of reasons for the mistakes, but most of them reduce down to human error. Doctor's orders were filled out incorrectly at times. Officials say there were some hospitals who surfaced for having lax inventory controls that led to a wrong joint being pulled from the shelf.

The 26 surgery issues were among 316 in a broader category of so-called "never events" reported in 2011 by the state and the Minnesota Hospital Association last week. They get that moniker because they are considered to be preventable. In 2010 the number of such events reported was 310.

To its credit, Minnesota is unique in the nation when it comes to quality assessments like this. No other state tracks and publicizes this kind of information.

Hospital officials warn against drawing any conclusions about overall quality of facilities based on the reports, which have been issued annually since 2005. One reason, they say, is because more hospitals are added to the reporting list every year.

Acknowledging that fact, it's worth noting that all it takes is one mistake to change a life, or end one.

Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "Wrong surgery cases hit a high," Jeremy Olson, Jan. 19, 2012