Emergency Medicine

Toxicology Fellowship Facilities

Oregon Poison Center

The Oregon Poison Center (OPC) was established by the Oregon State legislature in 1978. Currently it serves Oregon, Alaska, and the US island territory of Guam.

OPC is certified as a Regional Poison Center by the America’s Poison Centers (APC), and surpasses all minimum requirements for this designation, including population served (approximately three and half million), annual case volume (over 50,000), certified staff, full-time physician back up, active follow-up and data gathering functions, and public and professional poison information education services, among other criteria.

Calls to OPC are consistent with the spectrum and distribution of calls reported in the national database of APC. The call volume provides the fellow with opportunity to evaluate every possible nuance of common exposures to pharmaceuticals, drugs-of-abuse, household agents, and plants as well as providing experience with a variety of unusual poisonings. The diversity of the Oregon Poison Center's catchment area includes urban, suburban, rural and remote populations of all socio-economic groups, leading to a representative cross section of exposures. The climate and geography are equally diverse, ranging from high desert to remote arctic islands to a Pacific Island. As a result, each year OPC is involved with the management of rattlesnake envenomations, spider envenomations, as well as myriad plant and mushroom ingestions.

OHSU and Affiliated Hospitals on Marquam Hill

OHSU and Affiliated Hospitals on Marquam Hill

The vast majority of OHSU acute care toxicology consultations involve the Emergency Department of University Hospital, the adult intensive care units of University Hospital and the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of Doernbecher Children's Hospital. These hospitals, which see more than 400,000 annual patient visits, are all located within a short walking distance to the fellow's office in OPC.

Doernbecher Children's Hospital is the largest children's hospital in Oregon, and frequently is the referral site for toxicology patients, including many followed by OPC prior to transfer. University Hospital is one of two Level-1 trauma centers in Portland and is a major tertiary care referral center. The volume, breadth and proximity of case material available to fellows through working relationships with these hospitals offer an ideal setting for both clinical training and clinical research.