Use of interactive voice response technology by poison centers during the H1N1 outbreak.
BACKGROUND
Interactive voice response (IVR) technology may facilitate poison centers to handle increased call volumes that may occur during public health emergencies. On 28 April 2009, the Texas Poison Center Network (TPCN) added a H1N1 message in English and Spanish to its IVR system. This study tested whether IVR technology could be used to assist Texas poison centers during the H1N1 outbreak.


METHODS
The distribution of callers who accessed the H1N1 message during 29 April-31 May 2009 was determined with respect to message language, subsequent caller action, and date of the call.


RESULTS
The H1N1 message was accessed by 1,142 callers, of whom, 92.9% listened to the message in English, and 7.1% listened to the message in Spanish. After listening to the message, 33.3% hung up while 66.7% spoke to a poison center agent. The number of callers who accessed the message was highest on 29 April 2009 and then declined.


CONCLUSIONS
Interactive voice response technology can be used to assist poison centers to provide information and handle calls from the public during a public health emergency.
Department of State Health Service, Austin, TX, USA. mathias.forrester@dshs.state.tx.us
Mathias B
MB
Forrester
John F
JF
Villanacci
Norma
N
Valle
D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D015277:Hotlines; D006801:Humans; D053118:Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011039:Poison Control Centers; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D049250:Speech Recognition Software; D013781:Texas / Q000453:epidemiology; D014584:User-Computer Interface