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The purpose of a poison center:Decreasing incidenceA poison center must provide for the following:
Improving outcome and survival
Preventing recurrence
Decreasing unnecessary treatments and costs
Providing data on incidence and most effective therapies
Educating the public and health care providers
A poison center must use multiple health care and other professionals, each with particular expertise in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of poison exposures. This includes experts in a wide range of areas that include:Availability (24 hours/7 days)
Sources of up to date information (Internet, consultants, journals, books)
Staff that is trained
Information collection
Services for data analysis
Training, education and prevention programs
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Why a Poison Center?
The concept originally developed when it was realized that there were too many poisons for any one person, even a trained toxicologist, to be proficient in managing them all. The number and types of cases managed by any one facility was much less than if management were coordinated by a single centralized group of professionals.
By helping physicians in a large number of treatment facilities the staff of a central poison center would much more rapidly gain experience in dealing with a wide range of problems. Also, centralized facilities linked electronically to similar facilities around the world would have access to information resources and consultants that any individual treatment facility, even the largest hospital, could not afford to maintain.
Limitations
Sometimes getting people to admit they need to ask for advice. However, it is the treating physician and not the poison center who is with the patient and must decide what to do with the advice given.