Systematic differences between healthcare professionals and poison information staff in the severity scoring of pesticide exposures.

Context: Severity scores are used in triage and for data comparison in cases of poisoning. Exposure severity scores have not been generally validated and their utilization by healthcare staff other than specialists in poison information (SPIs) is untested.

Objective: To compare the poisoning severity grading allocated in pesticide exposure cases by healthcare professional enquirers and poison information staff.