Dude, Where's My Stash? Paramedics Ditch Faulty Narcotics Tracking System.

When you dip into the paramedics' stash, the world begins to look a little different...

​The San Francisco Fire Department's paramedics division, which keeps a stock of federally controlled narcotics for pain control and sedation, will abandon a notebook-based tracking system that had put the drugs at risk of being lost or stolen.

Under the old narcotics inventory system, paramedics wold simply scrawl in a notebook the amount of drugs kept in their ambulance, the Department reports. The system's inherent sloppiness meant the stash was vulnerable to "diversion," a Fire Department word that means, "house party."


According to an SFFD report delivered to City Hall this week, the old system had the potential to create a drugs-diversion candy store.

"Poor penmanship, the potential for wet paper, notations being made in several colors or in pencil - all create the opportunity for errors and loss (Diversion). Should the notebook itself become lost, stolen, or otherwise go missing, the entire medication accounting record for that vehicle would be irreplaceably lost," the report said.

Paramedics also used a notebook system to record narcotics administered to patients, which was, likewise, prone to "errors, misprints and incorrect calculation of residuals," the report said.

The report did not say whether the faulty records systems had led to drug thefts, losses, or overdosing of patients. We left a message with a SFFD public information officer to inquire about this, and we'll update you when we hear back.

The report did say, however, that a new, computerized system will be an improvement.

How could it not be?

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