SEQUIM — Clallam County Fire District No. 3 soon will have a safe, secure place to store the medications its first responders must keep on hand to answer emergencies.
The district will buy a UCapIt vending machine that only authorized personnel can access to replenish medications that may include painkilling drugs.
The funding comes from a $22,184 check that district officers accepted Friday from the Sequim-Dungeness Hospital Guild at its annual holiday luncheon.
That money in turn came from the auxiliary’s thrift store at Second Avenue and Bell Street in Sequim.
“This allows us to keep our medications more secure at the firehouse, including our narcotics,” District No. 3 Capt. Bryan Swanberg told about 40 people at the luncheon at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.
“It will help a lot.”
Fire Chief Steve Vogel joked, “It will keep us out of the newspaper,” speaking in reference to Peninsula Daily News accounts of last fall’s discovery that firefighter/paramedic Paul Rynearson had stolen morphine from the District No. 3 station, replacing it with saline.
As an alternative to jail time and in exchange for having the charges dismissed, Rynearson is now working his way through Clallam County’s Drug Court program, which is expected to take about a year.
“If we lose one narcotic, we’re in big trouble,” Vogel said.
After Rynearson’s thefts were discovered, the district first installed surveillance cameras to monitor the medication storage.
The UCapIt machine also will require an individual code number from each responder who withdraws the medications paramedics carry with them.
“We will know who, when and where” each withdrawal was made, Vogel said, besides what drugs were dispensed.
As for the guild’s thrift store, “sales are up,” said Jean Janis, guild president. “We’re doing really well.”
About 100 women staff the shop five days a week. Proceeds from it and an annual May fashion show and silent auction have raised nearly $1.9 million that the guild has donated to the community.
Recipients over the 44 years the guild has functioned have included:
■ Peninsula College School of Nursing, $50,000 in scholarships.
■ Other young people entering the medical field, $440,000 in scholarships.
■ Olympic Medical Center, $700,000 for equipment and services.
■ Fire District No. 3, almost $700,000 in equipment for its Emergency Medical Services Department.
■ The Dungeness Health & Wellness Clinic, $47,000 for the facility, which offers free care for people without means to pay for it.
________
Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com
