About Mississippi Poison Control Center

What we are about

The Mississippi Poison Control Center is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to assist callers in Mississippi, from the general public and/or the healthcare community, in the assessment and management of poisoning cases with the intention of reducing the morbidity, mortality and cost of care in the state of Mississippi.

Information on potential poison exposures is available free of charge to the citizens of Mississippi. The center is staffed by specially trained nurses and pharmacists who are specialists in poison information care. These nurses and pharmacists are required to pass a national certification exam administered by America’s Poison Centers. Nurses and pharmacists are supervised and supported by board-certified medical toxicologists.

National Poison Data System

The Mississippi Poison Control Center maintains a database of information regarding the nature, causes, management and outcomes of all poisonings reported to the center. This information is used to identify trends and improve both poison prevention and the medical management of poisonings. This information is uploaded daily to a National Poison Data System (NPDS) used for toxicosurveillance for the United States. This is a near-real-time poison data collection from all 55 poison centers in the United States. This provides ability to quickly detect any emerging public health threats.

Public Education

The center provides on-going efforts to better educate and inform the general public regarding poison prevention and general poison safety, as well as, to provide resources for continuing educational opportunities for allied health personnel at all levels. It also works with other local, state and federal agencies to provide around-the-clock information and assistance to the public and health care providers in the event of a chemical or biological weapons-of-mass-destruction incident.

Funding

The operating budget of the Mississippi Poison Center is approximately $1.2 million per year. Approximately 30% of this is obtained from federal, state and private grants. The remainder of the funding for the Mississippi Poison Control Center comes from the University of Mississippi Medical Center.