Journal of medical toxicology : official journal of the American College of Medical Toxicology
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Observational Study
Disaster preparedness of poison control centers in the USA: a 15-year follow-up study.
There is limited published literature on the extent to which United States (US) Poison Control Centers (PCCs) are prepared for responding to disasters. We describe PCCs' disaster preparedness activities and compare and contrast these results to those previously reported in the medical literature. We also describe the extent to which PCCs are engaged in disaster and terrorism preparedness planning and other public health roles such as surveillance. ⋯ PCCs (36/40, 90 %) are also involved in public health functions (illness surveillance or answering "after hours" public health calls). Despite an increase in calls received and population served per center as compared to previous descriptions, more PCCs report the presence of a written disaster plan, backup by another center, regular disaster drills, and comfort in ability to operate in a disaster. PCCs are actively involved in terrorism and disaster preparedness and response planning and traditional public health responsibilities such as surveillance.