The Rainbow Call Center began triage services in 1993 with a handful of nurses working from home with paper and pencil. A few years later, the call center became computerized, allowing the nurses to utilize electronic guidelines and documentation.
The center recently expanded, extending its telephone triage and advice service to California. Now, the staff provides advice coast to coast, counseling parents of patients of more than 550 subscribing physicians located in Ohio, California, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Today, the Rainbow Call Center is one of the largest pediatric-focused nurse call centers in the country. The staff also serves as the Greater Cleveland Poison Control Center, answering calls about ingestions and exposures to hazardous substances and serving as a key component of our region’s bioterrorism preparedness team. Each year the poison specialists answer 40,000 calls, mostly pertaining to children, and assist all the area’s emergency rooms and intensive care units in managing life-threatening ingestions. In addition, community poison outreach and education is an integral part of the Call Center’s daily objective.