Money-strapped
Poison Center must
cut back on hours

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

Residents, hospitals and doctors calling the Hawaii Poison Center's 24-hour hot line starting Aug. 1 will get only a recorded message on weekends and holidays.

Strapped for money, the center is closing from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. on those days. Callers will be told to call their doctor or 911, or to go to an emergency room in acute cases.

Willow Morton, the center's vice president, stressed the center isn't closing. But it is short about $100,000 to provide specially trained nurses around the clock on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, she said.

The center has been raising its own money since 1995 when the state stopped funding it. About $250,000 a year is needed for 24-hour service, Morton said.

It receives some services from Kapiolani Medical Center and a lot of support from the health community, Morton said. "Still, it has been really rough. It's just getting very difficult to fund-raise in this environment."

More than 12,000 calls were made to the center's free hot line last year, with problems ranging from insect bites to accidental exposures and inhalation of chemicals or cleaning agents. More than half the calls involve children.

"More than ever, it's important to poison-proof your house," she said. "A child will ingest something because a product is poured into another container, like a water bottle that looks drinkable."

About 20 percent of the calls are from medical professionals asking about managing a particular substance, Morton said.

The nurse tries to identify the substance and side effects and determine treatment. The center has a data base with more than one million substances that's updated every 90 days, Morton said.

First aid instructions, treatment recommendations and referral assistance are provided immediately over the telephone.

The lifesaving center was established in 1957 by the Honolulu Pediatric Society to respond to physicians' needs for poison information. It expanded to provide community assistance and education.

Patients who would otherwise go to an emergency room are treated at home with advice and follow-up from the center's nurses. About 79 percent of of exposures reported to the center in 1997-98 were managed at home.

Donations to help keep the center open may be mailed to Hawaii Poison Center, 1319 Punahou St., Honolulu, HI 96826. They are tax deductible.