Free shift-change narcotic count sheet
A shift-change count exists to fix the moment custody moves. Its value is not the number — it is the two signatures, which turn an open-ended question ("when did this go missing?") into a bounded one.
There is a variance column rather than a tick box on purpose: a count sheet that can only record agreement quietly trains staff to make it agree.
What is on it
- Drug, strength and DIN
- Expected on hand
- Physical count
- Variance
- Explanation, where there is one
- Outgoing signature and time
- Incoming signature and time
When you reach for it
- Every handover where responsibility for the narcotic cupboard changes hands.
- Opening and closing, in a pharmacy that counts daily.
- Any time a key is passed to somebody who was not on the previous count.
How often a Canadian pharmacy has to count, how long a completed sheet must be kept, and the difference between a log and a count sheet are all answered on the count sheets hub. Every sheet prints the Ontario and federal retention rules in its own footer.
More sheets
- Physical count & reconciliation sheet — At your periodic reconciliation.
- Periodic inventory form — At opening, at a fixed interval, at closing, or on a change of ownership.
- All five sheets in one PDF — When you are setting the whole narcotic book up at once.
The counting is the easy half
Working out what you should have — last count, plus purchased, minus dispensed, minus destroyed, per drug — is the part that takes the afternoon. NarcCount does that arithmetic from records you already keep. See it worked through on one drug or get the data out of your dispensing system.