Those findings came from the State of Our Health program, managed by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, which is holding a forum in Salt Lake City today.

The goal of the meeting is to raise awareness of inefficiencies in the health care system, such as medication errors, and to discuss ways to close quality gaps. According to the committee, quality gaps result in 39,000 to 83,000 avoidable deaths a year, up to 83.1 million sick days and between $2.8 billion and $4.2 billion in avoidable medical costs.

Upon reviewing the report, David Sundwall, executive director of the Utah Department of Health, said the results weren't alarming.

"There's nothing to brag about, but there's nothing to be ashamed about," he said.

Sundwall pointed out that another study, conducted last year by United Health Foundation, a nonprofit group in Minnesota, found that Utah is the fourth-healthiest state in the nation.

"We could certainly do a lot of things better," he acknowledgeds.

As part of an ongoing effort to help Utah residents compare the quality of care at hospitals throughout the state, the health department so far has analyzed outcomes for maternity and newborn care, heart surgeries and conditions, and hip and knee surgeries and conditions. The reports are available at its Web site http://www.health.utah.gov.

Sundwall plans to speak today about how Utah excels when it comes to replacing medical charts with electronic records.

Rulon Barlow, director of student health services at Brigham Young University, also will discuss information technology's role in improving health care and reducing medical errors.

We need to "communicate between physicians, clinics and hospitals and create portability between systems," he said. "Hopefully we are doing a better job in coordinating care and reducing medical errors. Tracking down charts is very time-consuming."

LaDene Larsen, director of the health department's Bureau of Health Promotion, will speak about initiatives to reduce obesity. She was concerned about the state's poor showing of women getting screened for breast, colorectal and cervical cancer.

"We were doing really well climbing to the national average and then it leveled off," she said. "We're quite disturbed about it. We're doing some work now and talking to providers and managed care companies to see why that is the case."

The Utah Cancer Control Program provides free breast exams, mammograms and Pap smears for certain women. The screenings are available to women 50 to 64 years old who earn 250 percent of the federal poverty rate or less. To find out if you are eligible, call 1-800-717-1811.

After the forum, officials with the National Committee for Quality Assurance hope local health care leaders will continue discussions and take action to improve health care quality.

chamilton@sltrib.com