Developing and maintaining quality in poisons information centers

The development of poisons information centers has in general complied with the actual needs and conditions in the society, and a pragmatic approach and limited funds have been characteristic for these units. To operate in a satisfying way a poisons information center is dependent on two cornerstones-a well educated and specifically trained staff on the one hand, and reliable, up-dated and easily manageable information sources on the other. Once a poisons information service has started to operate, it must more or less instantly launch a process to develop and continuously check the standards and the quality of the service. The European Association of Poisons Centres and Clinical Toxicologists (EAPCCT) has for this purpose developed a self-assessment checklist, addressing and defining minimum and optimum standards to be considered when running a poisons information service [J. Toxicol. Clin. Toxicol. 39 (2001) 2226]. Items covered are poisons center operations, direction and management, education and training of staff, location of poisons centers, information sources, documentation of enquiries/cases, funding, publications and quality control.