title: Understanding poison control and protecting its future.
abstract: Poison centers save money and lives. Individual patients and their doctors benefit from local poison center availability, as do healthcare facilities and insurance companies. All have a stake in a stable poison control system. It is likely that the greatest contribution of poison control centers to society has yet to be realized. Poison control centers already possess an efficient, realtime surveillance mechanism (TESS). With increased funding, this can be expanded and made more available outside the poison control community. TESS can be used to detect chemical releases or attacks and environmental and infectious disease outbreaks as they occur - long before individual healthcare providers could connect the dots. In conclusion, while the value of a nationwide poison control system to society is well recognized, its future is not as clear. Establishing a stable system to monitor and treat poisonings in the US will take political will at the local, state, and federal levels to ensure full funding for years to come.
authors.affiliation: Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, VA 23708, USA. makostic@mar.med.navy.mil
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Kostic
authors.forename: S Rutherfoord
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.forename: Vikhyat S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Bebarta
mesh_terms: D032882:Comprehension; D005544:Forecasting; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000639:trends; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D011039:Poison Control Centers / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history* / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States