TENNESSEE POISON CENTER (TPC)

Tennessee Poison Center (TPC) is a comprehensive poison resource center located on the campus of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. We are a statewide poison emergency information and resource center for the public and health care professionals.

OUR MISSION

Tennessee Poison Center is committed to the prevention of poisonings in the home, the workplace and the environment. Tennessee Poison Center provides clinical advice for the treatment of exposures to drug, chemical, plant or envenomation.

Tennessee Poison Center’s goals are to prevent poisonings, minimize poisoning complications and reduce the number of poison related deaths through telephone hotline intervention, public education, professional education and clinical research.

Tennessee Poison Center is certified as the statewide poison control center by the Tennessee Department of Health and is certified by the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

OUR PROGRAMS

Tennessee Poison Center saves lives and helps reduce your healthcare costs through these programs:

• A medical telephone hotline (Poison Help 1-800-222-1222 ) for poison emergency and information calls. Poison specialists, who are registered nurses, pharmacists and physicians, answer the telephone hotline 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These poison specialists give first aid treatment advice or hospital referral and answer poison questions. Three board certified toxicologists provide medical back-up 24/7. All Tennessee calls to the Poison Help hotline will be answered by the poison specialists at Tennessee Poison Center (TPC). TPC Poison Help hotline calls have increased dramatically since 2000. In 2000, the Poison Help hotline received 43,208 calls; in 2008, there were 128,576 calls. Currently, our poison specialists answer between 350-375 calls each day and Tennessee Poison Center is the 6th busiest poison control center in the U.S.
  
• Poison prevention education programs Anyone can be a poison victim. Most poisonings involve everyday household items and more than 70% of poison exposures occur in the home. Poison education outreach reaches every county through a partnership with the University of Tennessee Agricultural Service Extension Educators. This partnership won a 2005 Frist Foundation Award of Achievement in Team Building. In 2008, Tennessee Poison Center distributed over 600,000 pieces of poison control literature to Tennessee residents. 
• Statewide surveillance for chemical and biological terrorism Tennessee Poison Center is an integral part of Tennessee’s homeland security program. Data from Tennessee Poison Center is sent to Washington, D.C. as part of the nationwide surveillance for bioterrorism. No other organization in Tennessee provides statewide surveillance for a chemical or biological terrorist incident.

These programs are provided free of charge to Tennessee residents. Tennessee Poison Center receives funding from the Tennessee Department of Health, federal government, institutional funding from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, hospitals that use our services, United Way agencies in 18 counties, foundations and individual donations.

 

For questions or problems concerning this site please email us at: tnpoisoncenter@vanderbilt.edu.
Copyright © 2006, Tennessee Poison Center