Sacramento app company LogRx Inc. helps first responders track use of controlled substances using a smartphone, which replaces the current standard of pencil and paper reporting.
The stakes are high, because losing track of controlled substances can mean the revocation of the ability to carry them, said LogRx CEO Clive Savacool.
“You are required to call law enforcement if narcotics go missing,” he said. “It’s like driving without a seatbelt. Once you are in an accident, it’s too late to put it on."
Savacool worked as an emergency medical technician and as a paramedic for over two decades for fire agencies and private ambulance services, most recently as fire chief of South Lake Tahoe.
The LogRx app makes any Android or Apple device a scanner and GPS tracker that saves to the cloud so new equipment isn’t needed. The system automatically time-stamps, logs and records scans to help first responders track their administration of medications in the field.
Under federal law, controlled substances must be accounted for at every shift change, and every time they are used. The amount administered and the amount wasted must be logged. Crews also must account for the disposition of wasted meds.
“One of the benefits of collecting facts is that you find patterns of behavior,” Savacool said. For example, the system can find geographies of heavy use, such as neighborhoods with convalescent homes, where broken hips are common and require pain relief. Knowing that, an EMT or ambulance crew can rotate older meds to that area before they expire.
Another benefit of the real-time cloud storage is speed. Using paper and pencil, it can take a week to discover that something has gone missing. Using the app, missing meds are discovered quickly, which makes the chain of custody smaller and simpler, he said.
LogRx's approach to new clients is to make it simple and easy, Savacool said. There are no startup fees and no contracts, and the company doesn’t charge for training. It charges $30 per month per unit.
“Our approach is to kill them with kindness,” Savacool said, adding that high-touch service is one of the reasons clients tell other agencies about the product.
Savacool said the service approach has paid off. LogRx has seen zero turnover of clients since it launched, he said.
Savacool and co-founder Skye Thompson developed the app in 2016, but it remained largely a side-gig project for a few years. They started to ramp up sales at the end of 2019, but then by early 2020 with the pandemic, they and the agencies they were marketing it to had other priorities, Savacool said.
In the past year, the project has gained momentum, largely from word of mouth, he said.
Savacool declined to disclose LogRx's revenue, but he said its revenue so far this year is four times its total revenue of the previous five years combined.
The company has six employees, two full time, two part time and some consultants it uses for its web design and legal issues.
Investments in starting LogRx have all been bootstrapped so far, and that is the go-forward plan for the foreseeable future, Savacool said.
“Taking on investors complicates things. You have to keep them informed, and I understand the need for that, but it takes time,” he said. “We are looking at this as the long game.”
