Advice for lay callers with low-risk poison exposures by a regional poison control center: the impact on health care expenditures

Since establishing the first poison control centers (PCCs), there is a still ongoing debate regarding their relevance and financing. The present study aims to analyze whether a regional PCC can reduce the economic burden associated with utilization of health care structures due to low-risk poison exposures on the German health care system. A decision-tree based cost-benefit analysis comparing a situation utilizing PCC consultation versus a hypothetical situation without PCC consultation for low-risk poison exposures from the German health care system's perspective was conducted. The model inputs were obtained by a representative telephone survey of lay callers supplemented by empirical PCC and literature data. A probabilistic and deterministic sensitivity analysis with varying input variables was performed to prove the robustness of the findings. In the underlying telephone survey, data of 378 lay callers could be considered and included in the decision tree model. As a result, the mean costs for handling one low-risk poison exposure case were €41.99 utilizing PCC consultation compared to €145.92 without PCC consultation, indicating a cost-benefit ratio of 3.48 for the existence of the PCC. The sensitivity analysis proved that the outcome of the decision analysis does not change significantly with varying inputs. The existence of PCCs relieve the burden on other health care providers and reduce health care costs to a relevant extent. Therefore, PCCs should be considered as an important supporting structure of the German health care system.