About the CPCC

Pills, pill bottle, and stethoscope

The Connecticut Poison Control Center (CPCC) is located at UConn Health in Farmington. It is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by the poison experts. Call for fast, free, accurate advice for poisonings. We provide service to the entire State of Connecticut.

Our History

Since the Connecticut Poison Control Center was established under General Statute 10-a-132 in 1957, its operations and services have changed dramatically. It was first a department within Connecticut's Department of Health. Now an integral part of UConn Health in Farmington, and affiliated with Hartford Hospital, it is the only poison control center in Connecticut certified by the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

Our Mission

The Connecticut Poison Control Center’s mission is to enhance and protect public health by providing optimized toxicology-related patient care, information and education for all people of the State of Connecticut as well as their present and future health care providers.

The Connecticut Poison Control Center fulfills this mission by continuously:

  • providing around the clock patient toxicology assessment, triage and management consultations;
  • serving as a central resource for timely pharmacology and toxicology-related information;
  • educating consumers on poison awareness and prevention;
  • monitoring the epidemiology of human poisoning to identify hazard trends;
  • acting as a sentinel for environmental/industrial hazards and adverse effects of product, drugs and chemicals;
  • protecting the public health and homeland security;
  • conducting and presenting toxicological research;
  • ensuring access to CPCC services and referrals for all people regardless of social, economic and physical status;
  • enhancing the education of health care practitioners and students by providing formal toxicology instruction in poison prevention, diagnosis and treatment;
  • collaborating with public health agencies and health care institutions to gather, analyze, and report data dealing with toxicology-related health care issues of Connecticut’s population.

Our Staff

  • Medical Director: Suzanne Doyon, MD, MPH
  • Associate Medical Director: Charles A. McKay, MD
  • Managing Director: Katherine Hart, MD CSPI

In addition to our directors listed above, the Connecticut Poison Control Center is staffed by poison information specialists with backgrounds in acute care and special training in the management of poisoning, board-certified physician toxicologists, and community education staff. The doctors, nurses, and pharmacists of the CPCC have over 200 years of combined toxicology experience. They can determine the severity of an exposure and whether the poisoning can be managed safely at home or if hospital treatment is needed.

Our Consulting Toxicologists

The Connecticut Poison Control Center draws on New England's most extensive network of physician specialists in toxicology. Board-certified toxicologists are made available for consultations to the region’s hospitals, improving medical outcomes and reducing the cost of care.

Carl Baum, MD

Ryan Cole, MD

Joao Delgado, MD

Suzanne Doyon, MD, MPH

Matthew Griswold, MD

Kelly Johnson-Arbor, MD

 

John McDonagh, MD

Charles A. McKay, MD

Kevin O’Toole, MD, MPH

Asim Tarabar, MD

Anthony Tomassoni, MD

Poisoning by the Numbers

79 number of calls a day to the Connecticut Poison Control Center


365 days of the year you can reach a poison expert to help you


66 percent of all poisoning cases managed at home


28,721 number of cases managed by the Connecticut Poison Control Center last year


13.39 dollars saved in health care costs and lost productivity for every $1 invested in a poison center

Report on Poisoning Statistics for Connecticut

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