Poison center funding plummets
The Basic Facts
The Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center has operated as a public health service since 1955. The center was formally established by the state of Arizona in 1980 (see History) and has received the bulk of its funding through the Arizona Department of Health Services since then. Additional funding has come from the federal government and private contracts.
Since 2008, the state has decreased its funding to the poison center by 50 percent, leaving only enough to fund 30 percent of our center's operations. The University of Arizona College of Pharmacy has taken on the remaining expenses, hoping to provide an emergency bridge to better times.
In February 2011, the U.S. House of Representatives proposed decreasing federal funding to all 57 poison centers in the country by 97 percent. This likely would have forced some centers to close. In the final federal budget passed in April, thanks in part to the people of Arizona and other states who advocated for more funding, the federal funds to poison centers were cut by 25 percent instead of 97 percent.
Currently, the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center operates with 30 percent of necessary funding coming from the state, 10 percent from the federal government, 10 percent from private contracts and the remainder from the College of Pharmacy.
We thank all of you for your support and ask for your continued help to ensure our survival.
Why Poison Centers Matter
- Poisoning incidents are on the rise. Poisoning deaths are second only to motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of injury death in the United States, and nearly 90 percent of the public who call their local poison center get the help they need over the phone, meaning they don’t go to an emergency room and incur unnecessary health care costs.
- A 2008 study in Arizona found that 70 percent of the patients treated at home with the help of the poison center would have otherwise paid unnecessary medical expenses at their local ER. Every dollar Arizona spent on the poison center saved about $36 in unnecessary medical costs.
- Another study shows that a call to the local poison center costs the state about $33. An uncomplicated visit to an emergency room in the same state costs $600 to $800.
- During 2008, AAPCC recorded more than 2.5 million human exposures reported to and by U.S. poison centers. More than 73 percent of these calls were able to be managed on-site, without visits to healthcare facilities. So that year, poison centers potentially saved $997,395,280 in annual medical expenses.
- Every 90 seconds a healthcare professional consults a poison center. Healthcare providers rely on poison center staff for crucial information about poisonings. This, too, saves money - patients whose healthcare provider consulted a poison center on average have shorter hospitalizations – 3.5 days versus 6.5 days, which results in savings of more than $2,100 per patient.
- Poison centers are key to public health surveillance. We provided support to state and local governments responding to the H1N1 flu pandemic. We managed health exposures and collected important data on the impact of the Gulf oil spill. Recently, we were the first to raise the alarm about the toxic effects of synthetic marijuana and hallucinagens known as "bath salts."
When Funding Goes Away
- On April 12, we learned the federal budget for this fiscal year will include $22 million in funding for poison centers nationally. The agreement reached to avoid a government shutdown April 8 restored poison control funding to that level, which still amounted to a 25 percent cut from what was originally budgeted for 2011. We do not know yet exactly how much our center's funding will be reduced.
- The future for the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center is uncertain. The College of Pharmacy and others who value the poison center's services are working diligently to identify alternate sources of funding and develop a sustainable funding stream. Loss of our federal funding, of money already designated for use this fiscal year, will be difficult to overcome.
What Now?
- You can support the Arizona Poison and Drug Center through a monetary gift. Here's a link if you wish to give online.
- You can learn how to advocate for continued federal funding by going to the website of the American Association of Poison Control Centers.
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