Wyoming doesn’t have its own poison center — but there’s help on the other end of the line in Nebraska

CASPER — How does one call center handle the poison control needs of three states and two additional regions? Well, 20 employees at the Nebraska Regional Poison Center manage to make it work — 24/7, every day of the year.

The Omaha-based center takes in poison-related calls from Wyoming, Idaho, Nebraska, American Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia.

The switch from handling landlocked states to tropical islands was a big one, Director Kathy Jacobitz told the Star-Tribune, but the center has answered the call. Many calls, actually.

About 75% of cases are safely handled with a single phone call to 1-800-222-1222, Jacobitz said.

She estimated that callers saved nearly $38 million from avoided emergency department visits in 2023 alone.

“We tell people never, never, ever hesitate to call,” Jacobitz said. “Never, you know, sit at home and worry. Just give us a call, because that’s why we’re there.”

Established in 1957, the Nebraska Regional Poison Center initially, and naturally, handled only calls from within Nebraska. It began serving Wyomingites in 1992.

However, the Cowboy State hasn’t paid a dime to the Nebraska center in years due to the terms of the contract, according to Kim Deti, the Wyoming Department of Health’s public information officer. The contract stipulates that the state would only have to pay if the number of calls were to exceed 6,500.

“With our low population, this makes sense,” Deti said in an email to the Star-Tribune.

When the Nebraska center took over in 1992, shortly before closing a poison center based in Cheyenne, the internet was not the vast wealth of knowledge that it is now. So the center had to gather new information to keep on hand.

Jacobitz said that they had binders full of regional information to be able to specifically help Wyoming residents who called the poison center.

One example Jacobitz gave was mushrooms. She said that studies were conducted on child reactions to yard mushrooms in Wyoming. The center had already done this study in Nebraska and knew that children were usually fine with monitoring, but the staff needed to know if the same was true in Wyoming.

After reviewing the data and publishing results, the center concluded that it could follow the same protocols as Nebraska. Similarly, the center had to update the rattlesnake and scorpion protocols to handle Wyoming cases.

The center also had to build relationships with hospitals and medical centers through public outreach and educational opportunities.

What does a poison center do?

Did your child accidentally get into medications? Did your dog eat something it shouldn’t have? Have you ever wondered if your medications could interact with each other? These are all questions or concerns that a poison center can address for you.

Last year, the center received 33,505 phone calls for either human poison exposure, animal poisonings or information. It made or received an additional 60,555 calls that were follow-ups to initial poisoning calls.

About 2,000 human poisoning cases received at the center come from Wyoming each year, Jacobitz said.

Dr. Steve Cobb, the chief medical officer at Banner Health Wyoming Medical Center, said the poison center is used throughout the week by doctors at the hospital.

“I think the public probably doesn’t understand how important these centers are,” Cobb said. “I mean, these are experts in poison, and anything can be a poison, right? These are experts in poison, just like infectious disease doctors are experts in infectious disease.”

Seafood poisoning and jellyfish stings

In 2005, the Health Resources and Services Administration established grants for centers that would be willing to serve areas outside of the 50 states, according to Jacobitz.

That’s why the Nebraska center decided to reach out to American Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia, Jacobitz said. Although the Federated States of Micronesia is not a U.S. territory, it still receives some funding from the U.S. as it was once under a trusteeship. Neither American Samoa nor the Federated States of Micronesia had a poison center before Jacobitz reached out in 2005.

After becoming the service provider for both places, Jacobitz was able to visit the islands.

Those trips not only helped build a relationship with the hospitals but the general population as well, she said. The center was able to provide community education on poisons and the services that the center offers.

And it worked, according to Jacobitz. She said that the center began to receive more calls from those locations after the visits.

“So at the time, we were thinking, ‘Well, we’ve already provided services to Wyoming for many years. How different can it be?’” Jacobitz said. “We found out it was very different, as you can imagine.”

The call center began receiving calls regarding seafood poisoning and marine envenomations.

While the workers at the call center had to know this information for their licenses and certifications, many such calls were not usual encounters.

For example, they started receiving calls about stings from jellyfish and stingrays. Jacobitz said that while they may get a few calls related to seafood poisonings, this array of issues are more common in areas like Florida.

The center quickly developed first-hand experience and surveyed hospitals to learn about available antidotes and lab capabilities.

By knowing this information, the center is better able to advise callers on where to go to receive the proper care.

A world — or country — apart

The Nebraska Regional Poison Center is not the only center providing services to more than one area. In fact, there are eight other regional centers in the United States, and many serve vastly different regions than their home state.

For example, Puerto Rico is served by the New York City Poison Control Center. The Oregon Poison Center serves Guam as well as its namesake state. Alaska is served by the Kansas center, more than 3,000 miles away.

The Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Center services Colorado, Nevada, Montana and Hawaii.

Some centers serve areas much more similar in geography.

The U.S. Virgin Islands are serviced by Florida. The Northern New England Poison Center, located in Maine, also serves New Hampshire and Vermont. Delaware uses the Poison Control Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Rhode Island and Massachusetts share a center out of Boston.

The remaining 40 states have their own poison centers, and some even have multiple centers.

If you or someone you know ingests something potentially dangerous, or if you have questions about medications or have any other poison emergency, call the national poison center hotline at 1-800-222-1222 to be connected with your poison control center.

This story was published on December 21, 2024.