Healthcare Professional Priority Queue

The Healthcare Professional Priority Queue is a new menu option for the Poison and Drug Information Service (PADIS) that will prioritize urgent cases and eliminate delays in treating critical patients who are experiencing drug or toxic exposure.

When healthcare providers call PADIS, they will be provided with an option to enter a priority queue. 

Once in this priority queue, if a patient or situation meets any of the criteria, they can then press “one” and the call will be placed at the top of the queue to be answered by the next available Poison Information Specialist. Calls not placed in the priority queue will be answered in the order they are received.

This priority queue is intended for health care professionals needing advice for emergent patients who have had a drug or toxin exposure PLUS one of the following:

• Critically ill or unstable, such as: 
  • pre-arrest 
  • have arrested
  • seizing continuously 
  • hypotensive
• Chemical burns greater than 25% body surface area
• Potentially require immediate, unusual antidote treatment for a highly toxic substance as their clinical condition is or could become unstable
• Mass casualty situation OR where there are multiple patients with the same exposure overwhelming your hospital capacity.

The Alberta College of Pharmacists has a set of reference standards for resources that all pharmacies need to have available in their Pharmacy.

Additional resources that are available to health professionals include:

• Department of Emergency Medicine - Educational Resources (AHS & the Cumming School of Medicine)
• Health Canada’s Drug Product Database
• Health Canada Licensed Natural Product Database
• Lexicomp (Online reference)
• Micromedex (Online reference)
• Up to Date (Online reference)
• The Pharmacists Letter
• Briggs – Drugs in Pregnancy and Lactation
• Hale’s – Medications and Mother’s Milk
• RxTx (Online reference: e-therapeutics.ca)
• Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database (Online reference)