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Coleen Pettit wrote: > hey....how are we going to get our perscriptions filled during the > Millenium?? We will have to get a batch ahead of time..no?? Has anyone had trouble getting new prescriptions filled this year? Some year 2000 problems could show up right now, according to the witness statement to the Senate Y2K Committee on 10/7/1998 by Richard T. Carbray, Jr., RPh, who spoke on behalf of the American Pharmaceutical Association (APhA), the national professional society of pharmacists, and the Connecticut Pharmacists Association. See www.senate.gov/~y2k/statements/100798cabray.html. He said: "The problems for pharmacy will not wait for January 1, 2000, either. Many pharmacists will confirm or discover their challenges with Y2K compliance in early January of 1999. Let me explain. Most prescriptions for chronic medications, like a drug to control high cholesterol or blood pressure, are valid for one year. In entering a new prescription into the pharmacy operating system, an expiration date for the prescription is also entered. When Mrs. Smith brings in her prescriptions on Saturday January 2, 1999, I will know pretty quickly if the system is compliant. If it is not, the expiration date of January 2, 2000, will cause an error and reject the prescription." A small number of us on the list -- Gail Vass has been very involved -- are trying to educate ourselves on "Y2K" as it affects prescription drugs, and get a handle on where things stand. Information is hard to come by, because the situation is changing all the time, and because people who are late getting their computer systems in shape are reluctant to admit it. Right now I'm thinking it's a good idea to keep a month or two of extra pills on hand, and it's not too early to start right now. As Cabray points out, it's complicated in the case of prescription drugs, because of the large number of things that have to work together. If you drew a flowchart of all the processes involved which result in dispensing prescriptions, starting from obtaining raw materials for manufacturing, it would cover the wall. Any problems with insurance will show as prescriptions are dispensed, because of on-line links from the pharmacy to the insurers. But because manufacturing processes occur over time, a failure somewhere early in supply chains there may not be felt at the pharmacy for some time. This suggests to me that keeping extra pills on hand well beyond 1/1/2000 is worth considering. Phil Tompkins Hoboken NJ age 61/dx 1990