Poison Prevention Week March 21-27, 2004 National Poison Prevention Week, was enacted by Congress, and signed by President Kennedy on September 16, 1961, as a means for local communities to raise awareness of the dangers of unintentional poisonings and to take such preventive measures as the dangers warrant.             Quick Facts • Total Calls Received: 40,445 • Human Poisoning Calls: 22,636 • Animal Exposures: 2,446 • Information Requests: 15,363 • Average Call Length: 4 minutes

When in Doubt Give a Shout by Cathleen Rineer-Garber Last year, the New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center (NMPDIC) received more than 40,000 calls for assistance from New Mexicans in every county in the state. With an anxious, sometimes panicked, caller on the other end of the line, NMPDIC staff taking these calls must be able to think fast and remain calm. This may seem like a high stress job, but for the 15 staff members, it’s a rewarding one. “It really feels great when you hear the little sigh of relief in the caller’s voice when they realize that, with our help, their loved one can be safely treated at home,” said Holly Jones-Lovato, a poison information pharmacist with the NMPDIC. The NMPDIC staff performs two vital phone-based services to New Mexicans: assessing and treating possible poisonings and providing drug information. Poison assessment is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. When the poison line rings (which happened more than 26,000 times last year) staff members perform a risk assessment and then recommend a course of treatment. “Last year nearly 15,000 poisoning calls were treated safely at home, saving New Mexicans $3.7 million in unnecessary emergency room charges,” said Jess Benson, PharmD, Associate Professor in the UNM College of Pharmacy and Director of the NMPDIC. In addition to human poisoning calls, the NMPDIC received more than 12,000 drug inquiry calls last year—making it one of the most active in the nation. Most (61 percent) of the drug information inquiries received involve tablet or capsule identification. The remainder are requests for information on proper use of medications, their legal status, drug interactions, and side effects. The NMPDIC is one of only a few public access drug information centers in the country. “We are unique as a poison center because we also provide drug information—most don’t” he said. Benson attributes this distinction to the fact that the New Mexico Poison Center was started by the UNM College of Pharmacy (in 1977); because of this connection, it made sense to expand services to include drug information. Of the 12,122 drug information calls received last year, 38 percent came from healthcare professionals and 62 percent came from the public. “With the number of calls we receive from the public, it is clear that we are an important resource to New Mexicans,” he said. The NMPDIC is also an important resource for New Mexico’s future health care professionals. The center is a major training site for the UNM College of Pharmacy and the UNM Department of Emergency Medicine. Last year, staff members spent about 2,300 hours mentoring pharmacy students in the Drug Information Center. All PharmD students (those working toward a doctoral degree) are required to do a four-week drug information clerkship in the center during their fourth year of study. “Students can request an additional clerkship if they are interested in learning about poison information,” said Benson. Last year, 65 pharmacy students did clerkships. Students answering the phones are monitored very closely by faculty and professional staff. “The beauty is that students learn by providing service—under very controlled circumstances,” he said. Students not only learn while taking actual phone calls, but because every call is recorded, they can learn after the fact as well. Each week, Benson gives individual feedback to students based on the previous week’s calls. Pharmacy students like Bridgett Yarrington find the experience to be a valuable part of their education. “My rotation in the Drug Information Center gave me a chance to apply my knowledge,” said Yarrington, a fourth-year PharmD student. “The experience helped strengthen my confidence as a health care professional and gave me the opportunity to interact with other health care professionals and the public,” she said. Although most of students working in the NMPDIC are pharmacy students, emergency medical residents are required to do a four-week stint at the poison center. Medical residents in other areas, such as critical care, internal medicine, and pediatrics, also take advantage of this unique educational experience. “It was an invaluable educational experience,” said Paul Mikkelson, an emergency medical resident at UNM. “I was involved and able to learn from everything that occurred, from the time a phone call was received to the decisions the team made on how to appropriately diagnose and treat each patient. Seeing this process in action makes me more confident that as a physician in the community, I can depend on them as a resource." In addition to the vital phone-based services provided by the NMPDIC, the center also takes an active role in providing public education through participation in poison prevention events and providing educational materials. “Last year, we distributed more than a million pieces of educational literature to people across the state,” Benson said. New Mexicans also benefit from the center’s computerized data collection efforts. “Our system collects and maintains information on all cases managed by the center in real time,” explained Benson. Those data are submitted to the American Association of Poison Control Centers for the national database, Toxic Exposure Surveillance System, known as TESS. According to Benson, the information can be used to identify emerging local and national poisoning trends and track epidemics. It is also used for research that will help clinical toxicologists find ways to improve the care of patients who have been exposed to poison. By training New Mexico’s future pharmacists and physicians, responding to poison and drug information calls, educating the public and collecting data, the New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center is making a difference in the lives of New Mexicans—one phone call at a time.   Missed a feature story? Click here to browse our features archive.

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