Poison Control Center Surge Capacity during an Unusual Increase in Call Volume–Results from a Natural Experiment
Poison Control Center Surge Capacity during an Unusual Increase in Call Volume–Results from a Natural Experiment
复制标题
呼叫量异常增加期间中毒控制中心的浪涌能力——自然实验的结果
DOI：
10.1017/s1049023x00004349
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发表时间：
2007
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
S. Marcus
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Z. Vassilev;John Kashani;B. Ruck;R. Hoffman;S. Marcus
摘要简介：中毒控制中心（PCCs）发挥不可或缺的作用，在准备和管理中毒紧急情况。由自然和人为因素引起的大规模公共卫生灾难可能导致中毒控制中心（PCC）在短时间内收到和处理的查询数量急剧增加。为了对此类突发公共卫生事件进行规划和准备，重要的是，PCCs要评估其处理呼叫量激增的能力，并研究异常大量的呼叫如何影响服务水平。2006年1月26日，纽约市毒物中心的电话服务突然中断，导致需要将电话从该地区转接到新泽西毒物信息和教育系统（NJPIES）几个小时。研究方法：从电话交换机的内部报告系统和新泽西毒物信息和教育系统的电子记录系统中提取来自新泽西毒物信息和教育系统的数据，并使用标准电子表格应用程序进行处理。结果如下：与前一周的同一时间和同一天相比，新泽西毒物信息和教育系统在中断后的四个小时内接到的电话总数增加了148%。在这四小时（h）的时间段内，几乎每隔15分钟就观察到呼叫数量大幅增加（其中一些增量增加高达525%）。与此同时，新泽西毒物信息和教育系统接听的电话比例下降，在15分钟增量内放弃的电话比例高达62%。此外，在大部分以15分钟为单位的个案中，处理来电的平均时间较平日为长。结论：电话技术的局限性影响了新泽西毒物信息和教育系统应对电话激增的能力。虽然新泽西毒物信息和教育系统能够利用现有的毒物专家和工作人员处理异常增加的来电，但从这一自然实验中获得的经验表明，毒物控制中心需要有一个预先计划的激增能力协议，可以在公共卫生紧急情况下迅速实施。查明了中毒控制中心必须应对的一些挑战，以便在此类事件期间具备充分的快速增援能力。
Abstract Introduction: Poison Control Centers (PCCs) play an integral role in the preparation for and management of poison emergencies. Large-scale public health disasters, caused by both natural and human factors, may result in a drastic increase in the number of inquiries received and handled by Poison Control Centers (PCCs) in short periods of time. In order to plan and prepare for such public health emergencies, it is important for PCCs to assess their ability tohandle the surge in call volume and to examine how the unusually large number of calls could affect the level of services. On 26 January 2006, the New York City Poison Center experienced a sudden loss of telephone service.The disruption in telephone service led to the need to reroute calls from that geographical catchment area to the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System (NJPIES) for several hours. Methods: Data from the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System was abstracted from the telephone switch's internal reporting system and the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System's electronic record system and processed with a standard spreadsheet application. Results: Compared to the same time and day in the previous week, the total number of calls received by the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System during the four hours after the disruption increased by 148%. A substantial rise in the number of calls was observed in almost every 15-minute increment during this four-hour (h) time period (with some of these increments increasing as much as 525%). Meanwhile, the percentage of calls answered by the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System decreased, and the percentage of calls abandoned during a 15-minute increment reached as high as 62%. Furthermore, the average time for handling calls was longer than usual in most of these 15-minute increments. Conclusions: Limitations of the telephone technology, which impacted the ability of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System to respond to the surge of calls, were observed. While the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System was able to handle the unusual increase of incoming calls using available poison specialists and staff, the experience gained from this natural experiment demonstrates the need for Poison Control Centres to have a pre-planned surge capacity protocol that can be implemented rapidly during a public health emergency. A number of challenges that Poison Control Centres must meet in order to have adequate surge capacity during such events were identified.