SAN DIEGO -- State officials fined three San Diego County hospitals for practices that either caused or were likely to cause serious injury or death to patients, it was announced Wednesday.

The California Department of Public Health issued $25,000 fines per violation of state licensing requirements to the University of California, San Diego Medical Center Hillcrest, Scripps Green Hospital and Scripps Memorial Hospital.

The department fined 13 hospitals in total throughout California, including three in Los Angeles County and two in Orange County.

UCSD Medical Center Hillcrest was fined for an incident last July when an employee improperly administered a drug to a critically ill patient who had been transferred from another hospital.

"UCSD Medical Center is fully committed to providing the highest quality of care in a safe, error-free environment," a hospital statement read. "We have rigorous systems in place to ensure patient safety, and take any adverse event very seriously."

UCSD has "thoroughly evaluated the series of events surrounding this incident, identified opportunities to improve our systems and have implemented new procedures to protect against future incidents," the statement says.

Scripps Memorial Hospital was penalized for failing to develop and implement policies and procedures to protect patient safety related to the use of controlled substances, according to the CDPH.

The hospital was fined a second time for failing to implement policies and procedures related to the safe and accurate use of medications in emergency situations, according to the CDPH.

Scripps Green Hospital was fined for failing to implement policies and procedures to provide for effective surgical infection control, according to the state agency.

In a statement, the hospital said it takes its obligation to report the occurrence of any "adverse events" to the state "very seriously."

"In fact, we have been proactive and diligent in our efforts to share this information with the state," the statement read. "Scripps Green Hospital and Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla have implemented process improvements to address these issues and monitoring tools to ensure compliance. In both cases the patients involved were not harmed."