Since its inception in 1972, the San Diego Poison Center [California, USA] has made considerable progress towards achieving its goal of developing a poison care system which decreases incidence, morbidity and cost of poisonings. A systems approach was developed to care for patients at all levels of severity. Subregional centers were identified and linked to the poison center. Education of the region''s emergency medical personnel and the public was actively pursued. Calls to the center increased from 6829 in 1972 to 25,949 in 1976. Eighty-five percent of poisoning calls in 1976 were managed at home over the telephone. A follow-up call at 24 h for each case revealed that less than 1% sought additional medical care. The percent of all emergency department visits resulting from poisoning in a tracer group (children under age 12 leaving emergency department asymptomatic) dropped from 6.1% in 1971 to 1.9% in 1976. The percent of hospital admissions due to poisoning in children under 10 yr also dropped by 40% between 1971-1974. Estimated cost savings to the community by preventing emergency department visits alone each year covers the cost of operation of the poison center itself.