The Minnesota Department of Health issued an RFP for a contractor to operate their statewide Poison Control System. Under Minnesota statute, the state needs to have a single-integrated poison control system consisting of one or more poison control centers to provide statewide information and education services to the public and to health professionals. It is anticipated that $2,443,000 will be awarded for the two year period grant.
The poison control system is in place to reduce poison-related morbidity, mortality, and hospital admissions. In particular, the poison control system is expected to reduce emergency room and physician office treatment for minor poison cases and produce corresponding increases in home management of poisoning under poison service direction. Additionally, the system is expected to increase public awareness of common toxic substances especially as they relate to young children
The components of the system include:
• The call response component to provide accurate, immediate information, and treatment advice about human poisonings and toxic exposures, be available 24/7, and respond to requests at no cost to the caller. The department expects that 52,000 human exposure calls and 9,800 information calls will be received each calendar year of the grant period
• The emergency preparedness component in place needs to implement Minnesota Regional all Hazards Health and Medical Response and Recovery Plans, participate in the development of the interoperable communication system for the state’s Tiered Healthcare Response System, and provide consulting to the DOH on how to detect and treat biological and chemical terrorism
• The professional education component to provide information to health professionals on strategies to use to manage poisoning
• The public awareness component to provide a variety of public education activities statewide on how to deal with poisoning
Eligible applicants can include for-profit and non-profit entities and units of government. For more information, go to www.health.state.mn.us/divs/hpcd/poisoncontrol. The proposal is due October 24, 2011. For more information, email Pati Maier at pati.maier@state.mn.us.
