SAN DIEGO -- Health care is important for everyone. Now, the California State Department of Public Health has released reports about medical mistakes at hospitals.

Eighteen state hospitals have been fined for medical mistakes; six are in San Diego County.

The hospitals cited are Scripps Green, Scripps Mercy, UCSD Medical Center, Sharp Grossmont, Promise Hospital and Palomar Pomerado.

Those are mistakes considered serious, life-threatening, or fatal. If that's the case, a hospital is fined $25,000 per incident.

The state fined Promise Hospital $25,000 for "allowing an unlicensed staff person to function as a licensed nurse."

Palomar Pomerado was fined because, according to state health officials, three patients experienced surgical awareness during surgery.

Scripps Green Hospital was fined because a patient fell off an operating table during surgery. A hospital representative said the woman was secured with restraints. Don Stanziano of Scripps said, "However, during the procedure she began to slip out of the restraints." He said, "In an effort to prevent injury they guided her to the floor. The patient was not seriously or permanently injured."

UCSD Medical Center was fined for "failing to ensure the safe administration of medications."

What state officials call "adverse events" are also reported. State officials say these are mistakes that aren't considered life-threatening, but are important to report. In most cases, the hospitals won't be fined for these mistakes. However, that could happen.

A new law that went into effect last year says hospitals must be very specific in reporting mistakes. Hospitals have always had to report mistakes, but state health officials say the new system of reporting has provided better results. They say it has encouraged better and more thorough reporting.

Patient advocates say mistakes happen at every hospital but it is important information to have when you're making decisions about your health care.

"This is a health care problem, not hospital problem," says Gregory Knoll, a San Diego attorney and also the executive director for the Consumer Center for Health Education and Advocacy.

"The fact is that 200,000 people that went into hospitals left without incident. These are rare occasions," said Knoll.

Knoll also says that doesn't mean people shouldn't be aware of what's going on or take that into consideration. The new law he says encourages hospitals to be pro-active and recognize mistakes and fix them.

"In light of public scrutiny, hospitals police themselves better. Their medical staff reviews these incidents. They feel horrible about them, and they do better care after," Knoll added. "It's a horrible things for families involved, but it's a good thing it's being reported."

For more on this topic and comments from some of the hospitals we reported on, go to the 10news Investigative Blog.