If you handle narcotics and other restricted schedule drugs in your veterinary practice, you know the importance of keeping controlled drug log sheets. While these sheets are often inconvenient, recording and reporting are legally required and essential for protecting your practice.
But what if there was a different way? What if you could ditch your controlled substance record book and log drugs in real-time so you’d always have a clear picture of what was happening in your practice with tools you already have? With LogRx, you can! It’s easy and convenient to track your controlled substances with your existing smartphones and tablets.
Why Tracking Controlled Substances Protects Your Veterinary Practice
If you work in veterinary medicine, wildlife conservation, or any other field that handles drugs for animals, it’s easy to dismiss the possibility of human abuse or complacency. But unfortunately, many medications can cross over into human use unnoticed without proper accountability.
The DEA regulates the use of all controlled substances, whether they are for veterinary practice or human treatment. Because of the Controlled Substances Act, doctors, pharmacists, first responders, veterinarians, and wildlife professionals must track and report everything under their purview from the time they receive the medications until the time of administration or disposal.
In all industries, drug abuse, or what’s known as diversion, can happen. Diversion is when drugs are diverted from their intended use. Often this happens because of a lack of oversight. For example, it’s easy to lose track of medications in a busy veterinary practice or in a field setting where drugs can be spread out over a large geographic area, being passed through the hands of multiple staff members. These drugs can have high street value and be used and abused by humans when accountability isn’t a top priority.
Some people may even engage in what’s called “vet shopping” where they visit multiple vets to request narcotics and controlled substances for their own use when the original intent was for their pet. Unlike human medications, which are typically obtained only through a pharmacy, some may see veterinary medicines as more accessible for abuse because they’re obtained right from a vet’s office and not usually perceived as drug-seeking behavior, given that an injured animal may be involved as the intended patient.
Should drug diversion occur in your veterinary practice, you may be subject to fines, public embarrassment, legal consequences, the loss of your license and ability to prescribe drugs, and ultimately damage to your practice. What’s worse, patients can suffer as well. In some cases, drugs are diluted or replaced with other substances like saline, which could mean that a suffering animal that can’t articulate its pain levels could miss out on vital treatment.
Drug diversion is frightening and should make any practice owner recognize the need for diligence in controlled substance tracking and use.
In an industry as high-pressure, mentally, and emotionally taxing as veterinary medicine, the temptation can become too great. Not only can those in the sector succumb to substance abuse, but with crushing student loans and the low-paying nature of veterinary work, it’s easy to understand why people would, unfortunately, resort to diverting and selling controlled substances or using them for personal addiction.
So how can you protect your practice and your patients? Due diligence in narcotics tracking and logging is key. Not only does tracking help you know when you need to order more inventory, but it can help you identify any misuse, shortages, or unusual prescribing patterns that can raise a red flag.
Why Paper Controlled Drug Log Sheets Aren’t the Best Method
If your practice has been tracking controlled substances in a trusty controlled substance record book for years, you probably assume it’s the easiest method. Often veterinary practices run on a limited budget and there’s not as much flexibility for investments in technology, training, and upgrades.
But we all know the drawbacks of paper-controlled drug log sheets, especially in a busy practice. Paper tracking sheets can get lost. They can end up stuffed in a patient chart or misplaced on a messy desk. Or they can simply be manipulated by someone with malicious motives. If you use a veterinary narcotic logbook, you could be setting yourself up for failure.
Many practices experience gaps in tracking, often unknowingly. After a hectic day, staff may try their best to jot down everything that occurred, but it’s much more difficult to log it in that narcotic logbook at the end of a shift.
There’s also the fact that veterinary medicine (like all medical practices) can be a messy job. There’s plenty of opportunity for narcotic logbooks to get damaged, torn, wet, and otherwise ruined. Should something happen to your logbook, you’re risking major consequences that could cost you money, time, and stress. Loss of controlled substances is not always malicious, but fines can and are still issued for negligence.
LogRx: An Easy Way for Veterinary Practices to Track
Fortunately, LogRx offers an affordable, user-friendly, simple drug-tracking system that can transform the accuracy of your controlled drug tracking. When it comes time to fill out DEA, state, or industry-required reports, LogRx offers easy reporting and an at-a-glance overview.
Your vet techs and staff can log and track controlled substance use from the convenience of their handheld device or tablet. LogRx turns smartphones into scanners. Scan the coded label on the drug and log it in real-time, even tracking the GPS location of all activity. There are no questions or piecing together amounts and usage after the fact.
For those in conservation, zoology, and wildlife management, LogRx helps you track on the go. It’s great for mobile veterinary practices and in-home veterinarians as well. Even if professionals travel outside the range of phone service, they can use LogRx to track and upload when they return into range or connect to Wi-Fi. LogRx helps to make the job of field personnel easier, more efficient, and more accurate.
As for the administrative hassle of filling out reports and paperwork, ordering inventory, and monitoring trends and usage, LogRx is the ultimate time-saver. From the administrative dashboard, management can oversee exactly what is used, where, and inventory levels.
Unlike pulling together a big pile of veterinary drug log sheets, deciphering them, and trying to pull together reports, LogRx offers accessible, convenient reports at the click of a button. You can ditch the paper narcotic medication logs and free up your staff for other important jobs.
LogRx opens up staff time, helps increase your team’s efficiency, improves your tracking accuracy and accountability, and more. It’s like having another staff member on hand to do inventory management and reporting. For a practice concerned about its bottom line, LogRx is the affordable answer.
LogRx has worked with veterinary and wildlife professionals to design a system that works seamlessly with the unique needs of animal medicine. You can track dosages, volume, and usage for patients of all shapes, weights, and sizes. You can use LogRx in the field and on the go. LogRx is useable by anyone in your practice with a smart device.
As for the administrative side of LogRx, practice managers can see exactly when and where a medication was used. They can track carefully to prevent diversion. Easily report each month, quarter, or year to ensure that you meet all the requirements of your practice area.
Best of all, LogRx takes the stress out of veterinary controlled substance tracking. You won’t need to worry about the financial and legal consequences of making a mistake on a paper log. You, your staff, and your patients will get what they need when they need it.
To learn more about how LogRx can help protect and streamline your practice, reach out today! We can help you assess how LogRx can work for your team. It’s the affordable answer for controlled substance tracking in veterinary medicine.
