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Bill... I'd like to know how many errors are made in just he Kaiser Woodland Hills main 24 hour Pharmacy (that facility has five patient pharmacies that I know of). I've caught two potentially serious and 2 not-serious-but-really-stupid prescription errors make by Kaiser pharmacists just within this past year. Had I not been familiar with the drugs that were prescribed (and I'd taken these he drugs before and they were originally correctly prescribed by the MD, so I KNOW that the errors originated in the pharmacy, months after the original RX's were filled. By the way, the errors were in the dosage of the pills I was supposed to take was waaaay over what the original RX called for. The other errors were for the estrogen patches I use - changing them once a week as called for by the maker - and they were prescribed to be changed once a week. The box of patches I got from the pharmacy said to change patches every DAY! Now THAT was just plain carelessness! I betcha, considering the HUGE volume AND variety of prescriptions filled at the combined Kaiser pharmacies is chock full of pharmacist-caused-errors. Repetition and fatigue alone can cause errors... Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] ---------- From: Parkinson's Information Exchange on behalf of William Heitman Sent: Monday, September 28, 1998 2:07 PM To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN Subject: Re: information In a message dated 9/27/98 3:43:59 PM Central Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: << In fact, how could ANY lay-person know - no matter HOW PD-knowledgeable they are - keep track of all the contra-indicated drugs, when their doctor and pharmacist are unable to track that type of drug and disseminate the information to the patient??? >> Barb, I have never done this and I don't know how often it happens, but I have heard that the Wash U (in St Louis) College of Pharmacology has a reputation of delighting to find drug interactions that physicians have missed. Try your local College of Pharmacology. The worst thing that could happen is they just say no-or maybe charge you? The major problem, of course, is finding the time to do so-- especially when your pills are fouled up. Regards, WHH