HEALTH-CARE COST EFFECTS OF PUBLIC USE OF A REGIONAL POISON CONTROL CENTER

Poison control centers in the United States are threatened with closur e, and attempts at a cost-benefit analysis of these services have been indeterminate. The purpose of this study was to compare the operating costs of a regional poison control center resulting from public use o f its telephone hotline services with those of hypothetical alternativ e sources of advice and care. We conducted a follow-up telephone surve y among 589 public callers to the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Pois on Control Center who had been managed at home without medical referra l after an unintentional poisoning. All survey respondents were asked what alternative action they would have taken had the poison control c enter not been available to assist them by telephone consultation. We then surveyed emergency departments and physicians' offices cited as a lternatives by the callers to determine their response and charges for evaluating a suspected poisoning case. A total of 464 (79%) of the ca llers surveyed would have sought assistance from their local emergency health care system had the poison control center not been available. We conservatively estimated that the total charges for such evaluation s would be $71,900. Comparatively, the total actual operating cost of services provided by the poison control center for all 589 poisoning c ases was $13,547. Most of the study subjects (429 [73%]) had private i nsurance coverage. Direct public access to these services probably red uces the use of emergency health care resources, thus lowering health care costs.