June 17, 1999

KU'S POISON CONTROL CENTER IS JUST A PHONE CALL AWAY

That's why help is available 24 hours a day at the University of Kansas Medical Center's Mid-America Poison Control Center in Kansas City, Kan. -- and it's only a phone call away.

"We get about 80 to 85 calls a day," said Lisa Oller, interim director of the Poison Control Center. "The majority of our calls -- about 66 percent -- concern children under the age of six years."

The calls usually concern a child ingesting household products, medicine or cosmetics. Other emergency calls include accidental medicinal overdoses, occupational exposures and intentional overdoses, misuse or abuse and suicides.

"Approximately 75 percent of our calls are handled at home," Oller said. "Most of the incidents are handled at the home without having to go to the emergency room."

Children under the age of five are particularly at risk for poisoning due to their stage of development, Oller said.

"As a child's mobility increases, so does his ability to reach for a dangerous product," she said. "Young children constantly explore the world around them, touching and tasting everything they see. Unfortunately, the results can be devastating."

According to Oller, the poison center is a service provided by the state of Kansas. And, although the state of Missouri offers a poison control center in St. Louis, the Kansas center is also used by the Greater Kansas City area.

The poison center provides experts who

• are available to answer questions about poisons and overdoses 24 hours a day, 365 days a year;
• will tell callers immediately if they need to go to an emergency room, or if the problem can be taken care of in the home;
• will provide doctors with the most current treatments for a particular problem;
• will remain in contact with physicians until a patient is out of danger.

Officials with the center will even call you back to make sure everything is OK at home.

"People are very appreciative of the service we provide," Oller said. "And, in addition to everything else, we save health dollars." By safely managing nearly 75 percent of the poisoning exposures in the home, poison centers eliminate thousands of needless and costly emergency room visits, Oller said.

According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, every $1 spent on a poison center results in a $6 to $9 savings in overall health-care costs. In 1998 alone, the Mid-America Poison Control Center responded to more than 28,000 calls from the state of Kansas and the Kansas City area.

To contact the Mid-America Poison Control Center, Kansas residents can call 1 (800) 332-6633. Residents from the Kansas City area can call locally to (913) 588-6633. Hearing impaired can call (913) 588-6639.

Contact: Dann Hayes, (785) 864-8855, dhayes@ukans.edu