Objectives: One of the major roles of poison information centers is prevention of unnecessary visits to emergency departments (ED) due to non-toxic or minimally toxic exposures. To date, there is no published updated data on the adherence rate of the public to the Israel Poison Information Center`s (IPIC) consultation, or factors associated with non-adherence. This study`s objective was to evaluate the extent of adherence of non-medical caregivers of children to consultations provided by IPIC in cases involving children 6 years and younger, and assess the number of ED referrals prevented by IPIC.
Methods: A prospective cohort study based on a telephone survey. Calls from the public regarding children 6 years and younger were included. The research was conducted over one year during three months representing different seasons and holidays.
Results: A total of 1785 callers completed the telephone survey during the study period. 93% of the callers said they adhered to IPIC`s advice regarding referral to the ED, ambulatory care or home observation. 1450 callers (81%) were advised to remain at home and were not referred to additional medical care. Of those, 496 (34%) would have gone to the ED had IPIC been unavailable.
Conclusions: The vast majority of pediatric caregivers adhered to IPIC`s advice regarding poisonings and poison exposures involving children 6 years and younger. IPIC prevented almost 500 unnecessary referrals of young children to the ED in three months. This is the first prospective study to evaluate the effect of advice given by IPIC in the pediatric population.
