Just last week, I wrote a blog for this site, titled, Preventing medical errors is a 24-hour a day job. Unfortunately, that blog was more timely than I had imagined. This morning the Massachusetts Department of Public Health released a report on serious medical errors in Massachusetts hospitals during 2008. The results may encourage an apple a day, more exercise, quitting smoking, and anything else to reduce the chance of a hospital stay. On average, nearly one patient every day suffered a lethal or serious medical error in a Massachusetts hospital. Twice each month, a surgeon operated on the wrong part of the body. Nearly three times each month, a medical instrument was left inside the body after surgery was completed. Well over two hundred patients died or suffered serious injuries while falling in the hospital. Of the five hospitals with the highest rates of serious medical errors, four were community hospitals: Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington; Martha’s Vineyard Hospital; St. Vincent Hospital, Worcester; Nashoba Valley Medical Center, Ayer. Perhaps surprising, though, and certainly disturbing, the hospital with the highest ratio of serious adverse events (measured as events per 10,000 patient days) was the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary in Boston. Real change will not come until entire hospital medical staffs are routinely imbued with an awareness of and dedication to, communication, teamwork, sensitivity to patients, and awareness of the personal and systemic flaws and distractions that can cause medical errors.