poison center operations the necessity of followup a retrospective study of 2526 calls made to a regional poison center demonstrated the value of telephone followup of poison exposures further treatment recommendations were required in 212 of followup calls more than 25 of which were made to physicians poison prevention education and data collection were accomplished in more than 95 of cases twentyfour telephone followup calls corrected major treatment errors corresponding to a dramatic change in patient management more than twice each week this study delineates the functions and value of the followup call in the treatment and prevention of poisonings and in toxicologic research because the effective use of this procedure is limited to comprehensive poison centers with vast resources and fulltime staff this study further supports regionalization to promote maximal utilization of this and other elements of poison control