The impact of poison control centers on poisoning-related visits to EDs--United States, 2003.
OBJECTIVE
This study analyzes the association between center usage rates and the rates of nonadmitted visits to emergency departments (EDs) for poisoning.


METHODS
With a log-normal regression model, we analyzed the association between the number of human exposure calls per hospitalized poisoning patient and the number of nonhospitalized ED visits. The data were from 14 states at county level.


RESULTS
A 1% higher poison control center (PCC) human exposure call rate for unintentional poisoning is associated, but not necessarily causally, with a 0.18% lower ED visit rate (P < .0001). If the observed association is causative, 15.5 PCC human poison exposure calls prevent one nonadmitted ED visit, yielding a $205 net cost saving and a benefit-cost ratio of 1.4. The savings ignore any reduction in hospital admissions.


CONCLUSIONS
Increased PCC exposure calls appear to be associated with reduced ED use for unintentional poisoning and appear to reduce net medical spending.
Zaloshnja
Eduard
E
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Calverton, MD 20705, USA. zaloshnja@pire.org
Miller
Ted
T
Jones
Paul
P
Litovitz
Toby
T
Coben
Jeffrey
J
Steiner
Claudia
C
Sheppard
Monique
M
D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D011039:Poison Control Centers / Q000191:economics; D011041:Poisoning / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology