Virginia Poison Center celebrates 50th anniversary

By Cassie Williams
VCU Communications and Public Relations

The Virginia Poison Center recently commemorated 50 years of service at an anniversary celebration.

Part of the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center's Department of Emergency Medicine, the center provides free and confidential expert advice to the public and medical professionals.

“It’s come a long way,” said Lorne K. Garrettson, M.D., a former medical director of the center. “VCU is up on the cutting-edge of how this is done.”

In addition to the Virginia Poison Center, two other poison centers serve Virginians: the University of Virginia Health System Blue Ridge Poison Center in Charlottesville and the National Capital Poison Center in Washington, D.C., which serves the Northern Virginia community.

“Virginia is well served by the three poison centers and their collaboration,” said John Duval, CEO of MCV Hospitals.

The center provides direct emergency assistance with acute toxic exposures by telephone to the general public and to health professionals of the commonwealth. It also works to prevent unintentional poisonings through public education.

The Virginia Poison Center was established in 1958 as the Central Virginia Poison Center — the first poison control center in Virginia. Originally set up to serve Central Virginia, the center expanded its service area to include all of eastern Virginia when the Tidewater Poison Center in Norfolk closed in 1990.

The center then adopted its current name, the Virginia Poison Center, to reflect the larger regional service area. It became certified as a regional poison center by the American Association of Poison Control Centers in 1998 and has since maintained national certification. Today it serves more than 3 million residents.

In 2007, the center received nearly 37,000 calls, about 20 percent of which came from health care professionals.

“We feel we have as good a poison center as any other in the country,” said Rose.

For more information, call 804-828-4780, or visit http://www.poison.vcu.edu/about.html.