Sanford Poison Center

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Mission and Summary

Mission Statement

“The mission of the Sanford Poison Center is to assure that all South Dakota residents and medical professionals receive accessible, high quality and cost effective human poison information and treatment services. This is achieved through our partnership with a full service regional poison center that provides the needed poison information and treatment guidelines, in addition to our community education aimed at prevention of poisoning exposures and provision or support of other community services.”

Summary in 2006

In South Dakota, calls to the national poison control phone number, 1-800-222-1222 are answered by the HennepinRegionalPoisonControlCenter in Minneapolis.  In 2006, the HennepinRegionalPoisonCenter consulted on approximately 47,067 exposures and provided poison, drug or medical information to an additional 34,825 callers. Fifty-four percent of the exposures involved children aged 5 years or younger. More than 76% of the exposures were safely managed at home reducing unwarranted and expensive emergency room and urgent care visits. National studies have shown that for every dollar spent on poison control services around $7 in saved in unnecessary health care costs.

Data showed that South Dakotans called the center 8,538 times in 2006.  Seventy-three percent of those calls were for exposure and 27% were information/education calls. The majority of the exposure calls came from private residences and 58% of them involved children less than six years of age. Eighty-six percent of the exposure calls were for unintentional poisonings.

The substances most typically involved in exposures reported to the system include the following: Medications (over the counter and prescription), household cleaners and chemicals, cosmetics and personal care products and plants.

Members of the staff from the Sanford Poison Center gave presentations to health care professionals statewide, gave numerous public presentations, displayed at professional conferences and presented information for media events.

Poison Help 1-800-222-1222 (Voice/TTY) 24 hours a day • 7 days a week • confidential  • free of charge 

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Sanford Poison Center • Sanford Health USD Medical Center
1305 W 18th Street - PO Box 5039 - Sioux Falls, SD - 57117-5039

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