Frequency of post-poisoning exposure information provided to patients requiring emergency care.

Pediatric unintentional poisoning is common despite preventative efforts. Children who have had a poison exposure are at increased risk for subsequent exposure. The purpose of our trial was to determine how often poison prevention information is provided to child care providers in health care facilities (HCF). This was a prospective telephone survey of 100 cases of unintentional poisonings of children ages 1-5 y referred to a HCF. Excluded were cases of patients that had intentional or chronic exposures. Eighty cases received no prevention material; 20 cases received Poison Prevention Information. Ninety-three of the patients were discharged from the emergency department, 6 patients were discharged from a pediatric floor, and 1 was discharged from a Pediatric ICU. Follow up calls to home may be difficult after the patient is referred to a HCF and many families did not receive poison prevention materials. This study indicates the need for a poison prevention discharge packet to be distributed to provide uniform and complete poison prevention education.