Poisoning Prevention, Treatment, and Detection as Public Health Investments

The U.S. Poison Center Network provides a wide variety of services to the public, government entities, health care providers and institutions, product manufacturers, and public health organizations and researchers. The Poison Center Network in the United States is composed of regional Poison Centers and their national accrediting organization, America's Poison Centers^®. To assess the economic and societal value of the Poison Center Network, the authors conducted a survey of individual Poison Centers to collect information on the scope and scale of services provided, operational costs, and sources of funding, as well as individual and group interviews with stakeholders.

To describe and estimate the monetary value of the benefits provided by Poison Centers, the authors developed a logic model framework, mapping Poison Center inputs (i.e., resources and staff) to activities (i.e., essential and ancillary functions), outcomes, and impacts. The authors then used a benefit-cost analysis framework to estimate a return on investment — the tangible and intangible returns, to the extent feasible, to society for every dollar spent by Poison Centers to help prevent, treat, and manage poisonings and exposures. Overall, the Poison Centers provide significant returns to society for every dollar spent, including cost savings because of avoidable medical utilization, reduced patient length of stay, mortality risk reduction, and enhanced national public health surveillance.