For agencies that provide emergency medical services, every single drug must be accounted for. But during Clive Savacool’s time as a firefighter in the Bay Area, drugs went missing from a fire station. Known as “diversions,” he says, these incidents highlight the vulnerabilities that can happen from using pen and paper to log entries.

“When they went to do the investigation, they looked at the records, which were just paper logs,” he recalls. “People signed it by hand and there were two signatures … one person going off duty and the person coming on duty, so it was clear people were neglecting their responsibilities.”

Recognizing this as “a symptom of a greater systemic problem,” Savacool co-founded LogRx, a Sacramento-based tech-driven solution for tracking controlled substances. With 25 years of EMS experience, he believes the pen-and-paper route is outdated — a time-consuming process that can, if handled poorly, lead to diversions, fines or even revoked licenses.

LogRx streamlines the process, tagging drug vials and bottles with smart labels that allow EMS staff to monitor inventory, track narcotics and manage transfers through a mobile app. For example, at a Colorado agency where Fentanyl went missing, LogRx helped the organization pinpoint the drug’s last known location and alert the appropriate officials, Savacool says.

Last fall, LogRx won the $10,000 grand prize at the Pitch Elk Grove 2024 competition. The startup has three full-timers and eight in total on the team. (Skye Thompson is the other founder and Tanner Burton is the chief technology officer and technical co-founder.) Currently, with around 270 customers and a subscription-based pricing model, the company has been stable through revenue alone. Savacool wants to reach 1,500 customers in the next four years, but brand awareness is the biggest hurdle.

If more agencies knew about his system, he says, they would realize the amount of time and money they could save. For example, the Portland Fire Department has more than 30 fire stations and once a month, they had a driver manually check drug inventory at every station, which used to take several days. Now as a LogRx customer, the time has been reduced considerably.

LogRx also has alerts with expiring drugs, so the system can provide agencies with updates on how many days left they have of their inventory.

“What we’ve always recommended is, at the six-month period before a drug expires,” he says, “move it to one of your busier fire engines or ambulances so it can be used hopefully before it expires. That way it’ll reduce waste.”

But Savacool has heard comments from people who don’t see the need for his system, often saying they’ve never had issues with narcotics. In response, he would share his go-to analogy.

“And I said, ‘Yeah, but that’s like driving without a seat belt,’” he says. “‘You can drive all day long without a seat belt on, but once you have an accident, it’s too late to put it on.’”

Royal Ambulance, based in San Leandro, has a robust critical care program that requires various complex protocols to treat ICU level patients, says Founder and CEO Steve Grau.

When Savacool approached him with early iterations of LogRx, Grau connected with the idea of a long-time paramedic innovating to improve patient care accountability. Using the system for about eight years now, Grau says he finds value in its ability to better track drugs, save time and reduce administrative burdens.

“The reason accountability and efficiency is important is because, at the end of the day, it’s not just about us saving minutes or hours a year,” he says, “but it’s about reducing the levels of errors that can be associated with manual or paper processes, which ultimately impact human lives that we take care of.”

–

Stay up to date on innovation in the Capital Region: Subscribe to the Comstock’s newsletter today!