One of the important roles of the Poison Center is to decide whether a poisoning exposure can be treated outside of a healthcare facility (e.g. at home) or if it requires direct medical care. In 2005 the poison center was able to manage 3 out of every 4 patients outside of a hospital emergency department. This works out to a savings for Kentucky residents of more than $10 million each year.
Studies show that when no poison center is available, many of these patients will end up in the emergency department, at a significantly greater cost per patient, because they have nowhere else to turn for help. Poison control centers have been called the second most important public health program in the United States, second only to the childhood immunization program in reducing illness and injury in the public.
At the same time the center was reducing the number of patients needing to be seen in the emergency department, it was providing sophisticated treatment recommendations to physicians and nurses for those patients that were gravely ill. Recent studies have shown that when the poison center is consulted on patients admitted to a hospital with a poisoning, their hospitals stay is shortened on average by more than a day and their hospital costs are reduced by more than $1200 per patient. This works out to an additional saving of $3 to $5 million dollars for Kentucky Residents each year.