Medication errors are the single most common preventable cause of adverse events in medication practice and a major public-health burden with an estimated annual cost between €4.5 billion and €21.8 billion (World Alliance for Patient Safety 2010). Medication errors refer to mistakes in the processes of prescribing, supplying, dispensing, preparing, administering or monitoring medicines in clinical practice. According by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), in Europe the medication-error rate in primary care is estimated at 7.5% at prescription and 0.08% at the dispensing stage, whereas in the hospital setting the rates vary between 0.3 and 9.1% and between 1.6 and 2.1% respectively.
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