Kaiser mistakes - prescriptions

[Shauna]

SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- Thousands of patients may have received the wrong prescription drugs last week due to a power outage at a hospital chain's computer center, hospital officials said Monday.

 

There were no reports Monday of patients suffering from adverse reactions because of the prescription mix-up.

 

About 4,700 patients from Fresno to the Oregon border were affected after a power loss at Kaiser Permanente's computer center in Southern California knocked the pharmacy's labeling system out of sync, said hospital spokeswoman Lea Rubio. It's unclear what caused the power outage.

 

Patients who had their prescriptions filled Thursday at one of the 108 Kaiser-Permanente-owned pharmacies in Northern California could have received the wrong drug even if the information printed on the bottle was correct, Rubio said.

 

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, even sending workers to patients' homes, Rubio said.

 

But by Monday afternoon, 152 patients who could have received mislabeled drugs still had not been contacted, in some cases because they listed a post office box as their address, Rubio said.

[ReneeD]

What a scary thought!

[Shauna]

That's what I thought too - can you imagine getting the wrong meds?  We'd be crawling on the floor wondering what WE did wrong.