FREQUENCY OF POST-POISONING EXPOSURE INFORMATION PROVIDED TO PATIENTSREQUIRING EMERGENCY CARE

Pediatric unintentional poisoning is common despite preventative effor ts. Children who have had a poison exposure are at increased risk for subsequent exposure. The purpose of our trial was to determine how oft en poison prevention information is provided to child care providers i n health care facilities (HCF). This was a prospective telephone surve y of 100 cases of unintentional poisonings of children ages 1-5 y refe rred to a HCF. Excluded were cases of patients that had intentional or chronic exposures. Eighty cases received no prevention material; 20 c ases received Poison Prevention Information. Ninety-three of the patie nts were discharged from the emergency department, 6 patients were dis charged from a pediatric floor, and 1 was discharged from a Pediatric ICU. Follow up calls to home may be difficult after the patient is ref erred to a HCF and many families did not receive poison prevention mat erials. This study indicates the need for a poison prevention discharg e packet to be distributed to provide uniform and complete poison prev ention education.