Cost saving from poison center use by medical consumers.

We asked 187 sequential eligible callers to our poison center (PC) what action they would have taken if the PC had not existed, and about their health insurance, if any. Callers eligible for this study were those not requiring medical care other than dilution or reassurance during the 24 hour follow up period. Most callers would have either called their physician or ER, or gone directly to a physician's office or to an ER without calling first. Assuming a cost of $25 for a physician's office visit, $100 for a ER visit, and no charge to the patient for calling their physician or pharmacist, and using our actual PC cost per case of $10, direct medical costs to the consumer were reduced by PC use by 75 to 80% for all such callers. This information supports ongoing cost effectiveness of PC provision of poison information services.