American poison control centers: still not all the same?

Although poison control centers meeting the criteria for certification by the American Association of Poison Control Centers as regional centers are widely believed to differ from centers not meeting these criteria, this assumption has not recently been validated. We surveyed all poison control centers listed in the Emergency Medicine 1986 directory of poison control centers or in the 1986 American Association of Poison Control Centers membership directory regarding their operations. Of 208 poison control centers listed, 167 (80.2%) responded; 28 of 35 regional poison control centers (80.0%) responded, as did 139 of 173 nonregional poison control centers (80.3%). The median annual call volume was 3,899 for all centers. For regional poison control centers, the median was 44,429, and for nonregional poison control centers, 1,553 (P less than .001). There also were highly significant differences in population served, call volume per capita, center staffing, medical direction, staff orientation, and follow-up protocols.