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Article: Strategies to reduce medication errors in older adults.(129 CLINICAL UPDATE)
- Article from:
- Australian Nursing Journal
- Article date:
- September 1, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Australian Nursing Federation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Background
Medication error is a significant problem in health care in many countries. In a report from the United States (US) medication errors represented 20% of medical errors despite recent efforts to reduce them (Durieux et al 2007). In Australia, the older population have higher reported rates of medication incidents due to higher levels of medication intake and increased likelihood of being admitted to hospital (hospital statistics being the main source of medication incident reporting) than other age groups. The financial burden is staggering with one estimate putting the cost of preventable medication errors in the US alone between $17 and $29 billion ...