In an Emergency
1. Call the Poison Center Hotline (1-800-222-1222) if you or another person have been poisoned, or think you have been exposed to something that might cause an unwanted and/or unexpected reaction.
2. Remain calm - the majority of poison emergencies can be resolved quickly; over the phone
3. Call 9-1-1 if the person is unconscious or has difficulty breathing.
Poison Prevention Educators: Don't forget to order free education materials for your Illinois Poison Prevention Month events in March! Deadline for priority mailing is Feb. 10! Order now!
Advocacy
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What would the public do if there were no poison center available?
A poison center means different things to different people: For a caregiver, it is a place to call for treatment advice if their child eats, drinks, rubs onto their skin or breathes a potentially harmful substance. To a doctor or nurse, the IPC is the place to call for treatment recommendations for potentially poisoned patients in their care. For health educators, it is the leading organization for materials and assistance in providing poison prevention education in their communities. And for researchers, our database is the place to come for trends and analysis for potentially emerging outbreaks to hazardous substances.
The Illinois Poison Center provides a host of valuable services, but in today’s environment, value is a key quality that all public health services must provide. The Illinois Poison Center saves $12 for $1 we spend on providing services. We save the state of Illinois conservatively, over 50 million dollars a year in healthcare costs. You might say the Illinois Poison Center is the antidote to unnecessary healthcare costs. By reducing emergency room visits, decreasing hospital admissions, and decreasing patient length of stay (LOS) in a hospital, the IPC has been providing a valuable service to all those who live and work in Illinois since 1953.
What would the public do if there were no poison center available? They would most likely seek a higher level of more labor intensive and expensive care. Without an adequately funded, fully functioning poison center it’s going to cost money, health and lives.
The Illinois Poison Center's mission is multi-faceted; we are much more than a hotline. As a small nonprofit organization,0 we rely on the support from those we serve. The need for our vital services and the value that the IPC provides is heard the best when voiced by the citizens of Illinois. Therefore we encourage you to contact your local legislators and state officials, and provide your support for the continued funding of the Illinois Poison Center.
To learn more about how the Illinois Poison Center and its benefits the Illinois please read the following posts from the IPC Blog:
