Survey of the stocking of poison antidotes in Alabama hospitals.

BACKGROUND

We wanted to estimate the current antidote supply in Alabama hospitals, establish if certain antidotes were stocked more than others, and identify certain parameters (eg, treatment level of care, licensed bed size, or county population) as predictors for the current antidote supply.

METHODS

We faxed surveys to treatment level I/II hospitals and a random sample of treatment level III hospitals. Antidote supply was reported for digoxin immune Fab, pyridoxine, ethanol, pralidoxime, antivenin (Crotalidae), deferoxamine, cyanide, naloxone, and fomepizole.

RESULTS

Of treatment level I/II and level III hospitals surveyed, 28 (100%) and 20 (71.4%) responded, respectively. None (0%) of the hospitals surveyed had adequate stocking for all nine antidotes. The results illustrate the common practice of understocking poison antidotes.

CONCLUSIONS

Hospitals must reevaluate their current antidote inventories for meeting the needs of acutely poisoned patients. Policy containing specific guidelines must be developed and uniformly adopted as standard of practice.