Drug mix up in Northern California to the Oregon border, due to power outage

[Guest guest]

Hi Ya'll this seems news worthy and important enough to share with anybody you

know who may know someone that may have gotten the wrong drugs. This is very

scary. Please pass on. Tawny, I've copied the entire article with the link.

 

>But by Monday afternoon, 152 patients who could have received mislabeled drugs

still had not been contacted.

 

 

 

http://www.goingplatinum.com/channels/health_story.asp?story_id=37384296#story,

 

 

 

Power Outage Causes Drug Mix-Up

Source: Associated Press

2003-03-18

 

 

Thousands of Northern California patients may have received the

wrong drugs last week when they had their prescriptions filled at Kaiser

Permanente pharmacies, hospital officials said Monday.

 

 

About 4,700 Northern California patients from Fresno to the Oregon

border were affected by the prescription mix-up after a power outage at the

hospital chain's Southern California computer center caused labeling errors.

It's unclear what caused the power outage.

 

 

Patients who had their prescriptions filled Thursday at the hospital

chain's 108 Northern California pharmacies could have received the wrong drug

even if the information printed on the bottle was correct, said hospital

spokeswoman Lea Rubio.

 

 

The error also affects patients who ordered their

prescriptions by telephone.

 

Hospital officials discovered the mistake late Friday and tried over

the weekend to contact patients who could have been affected by the labeling

error to warn them not to take the drugs, Rubio said.

 

But by Monday afternoon, 152 patients who could have received

mislabeled drugs still had not been contacted.

 

" We've contacted almost all members who were affected on that day, "

said Rubio. " But there are a few we haven't been able to contact. "

 

Although the hospital has workers going to patients' homes to warn

them of the mistake, some people couldn't be located because they listed a post

office box as their address, she said.

 

There were no reports Monday of patients suffering from adverse

reactions because of the prescription mix-up.

 

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