No loss for R.I. in poison control; flu services grow

PROVIDENCE – With funding having been found at the last minute during this year’s budgetary sessions at the Statehouse, the state’s Boston-based poison-control services have been extended through June 2015.
Rhode Island’s access to the regional center for poison control and prevention would have ended on July 1, if the state didn’t come up with money needed annually to support it. It was unclear last week exactly how much the state has committed for the service.
Rhode Islanders not only have maintained their access to conventional poison-center phone services, but will gain access to a new service that has been developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Association of Poison Control Centers and the United Way.
That new service puts poison-control centers at the forefront of the nation’s response to grave flu pandemics. As hospital and health-center telephone lines become stretched during a pandemic, callers will be encouraged to dial 211, the United Way’s public-service line, and the phone number for poison control. If United Way operators determine that it is appropriate, they will hand the calls off to poison control.
Poison-control personnel, when receiving a call directly from a private citizen or indirectly through 211, will perform similar telephone triage to what they currently do when receiving poison calls. •

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