Willingness to pay for poison control centers.

Area of Science:

• Health Economics
• Public Health Policy
• Consumer Behavior Analysis

Background:

• Poison control centers provide critical services, but their economic value is often difficult to quantify.
• Understanding the public's willingness-to-pay (WTP) can offer insights into the perceived benefits of healthcare access.
• Direct access to poison control centers can be subject to disruptions, necessitating an evaluation of service value under varying accessibility conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the economic benefits of poison control centers using the willingness-to-pay (WTP) method.
• To compare the WTP for poison control services between individuals who experienced blocked access and the general population.
• To assess the utility of the WTP method for valuing essential, yet hard-to-quantify, healthcare services.

Main Methods:

• Employed the willingness-to-pay (WTP) contingent valuation method.
• Surveyed three groups: individuals whose access to poison control was blocked (n=396), individuals after access was restored (n=418), and the general population (n=119).
• Analyzed mean monthly WTP values across the surveyed groups.

Main Results:

• Mean monthly WTP was $6.70 for blocked callers, $6.11 for non-blocked callers, and $2.55 for the general population.
• Both blocked and non-blocked callers demonstrated a significantly higher WTP compared to the general population (p < 0.001).
• The WTP method effectively captured benefits that are challenging to quantify through traditional metrics.

Conclusions:

• The willingness-to-pay (WTP) method provides a valuable approach for measuring the economic benefits of poison control centers.
• Individuals perceive higher value in poison control services when direct access is compromised.
• Careful survey design is crucial to minimize bias when implementing WTP studies for healthcare services, with potential applications for other health services.