Posters IV - The American Academy of Clinical Toxicology

ADR's initially categorized as "allergies" 211/274 (77%)
% changed to side effects 59/211 (28%)
% of patients that could tolerate the medication 25/59 (42%)
% changed to precautions 15/211 (7%)
% changed to preference 2/211 (1%)
ADR's not been previously documented 15/274 (5%)
Conclusions: Parents may inaccurately present a patient's adverse reaction profile, and the nature of the
ADR may not be verified by the health care provider. This perpetuates the problem and precludes the
patient from receiving an appropriate medication for the patient and the disease. Utilization of a program
that accurately characterizes the reaction and medication with the reaction may allow patient's to receive
appropriate medications in their future.
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Partnership with Public Health Agencies Creates Opportunity to Educate Populations Underutilizing
Poison Center Services
Lizette Villarreal 1 , Virginia Barrera-Garcia 1 , Carmen Jimenez 1
1 University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, San Antonio TX USA
Background: Integrating public health into poison center (PC) activities has become a focus for PCs
across the country. By participating in Operation Lone Star (OLS), our PC provided poison prevention
education to parents, caregivers, and others in counties that are majority Hispanic, Spanish-speaking, and
medically-underserved areas of South Texas. Methods: Our PC partnered with public health agencies
across the state to increase awareness related to the importance of utilizing PC services among OLS
attendees. This two-week event is a joint project between various agencies including state health and
human services agencies, TX State Guard, Army and Air National Guard, county health departments,
local service groups and civilian volunteers that provide medical services such as free medical and dental
exams, vaccines, and immunizations to people in the community and the operation serves as training for
emergency planning. This intensive event covers six counties and is the largest humanitarian effort of its
kind in the US. Due to wait times, our PC took the opportunity to educate those attending the event.
Results: A major disparity exists in the language of callers utilizing PCs versus the actual percent of the
population in our state that speaks Spanish. PC call data for our state indicates that only 1% of calls are
from the Spanish-speaking community; although, 29% of the population 5 years old and over speak
Spanish in their home. The population reached by OLS was a majority Spanish speaking. Over a twoweek
period, community educators targeted six counties and reached 12,179 people. Table 1 provides
census data on the composition of each county and a breakdown of the number reached. Spanish language
calls originating in our region have increased by 220% from 444 in 2001 to 1,421 in 2010. The increase in
2010 may be attributed to educational projects such as Operation Lone Star that provide education aimed
at the Spanish speaking population. Conclusions: Since regional PCs encompass a large group of counties
across a state, it is important that partnerships with public health entities be established to reach people
that are currently underutilizing PC services. This project highlights the effectiveness of an initiative that
reached a specific population over a relatively short period of time and attributed to positive outcomes.
Table 1: Demographics of Counties Targeted