Posted on 08/13/2012 2:25:34 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows
Lets set aside for the moment the question of whether its appropriate to talk about gun control in the wake of the shootings in Aurora, Colorado (though I cant think of a more appropriate time to talk about it). And lets not consider whether it makes sense that its legal to buy thousands of rounds of ammunition on-line in the U.S, without any background check (though could it, really?) And lets not revisit that old argument about people, and not guns, killing people (though millions of people, including evil and deranged people, do seem to live in countries with negligible amounts of gun violence).
What Im thinking about today is the role doctors and other health professionals do and should play in preventing the 30,000 deaths and many more injuries in which firearms are involved every year in the U.S.
Behind the closed doors of my exam room, I ask patients many very personal questions: about their sexual behavior, alcohol and drug use, domestic violence, and other sensitive issues.
But there are no questions I askand I ask them routinely, especially of new patientsthat meet with more surprise than these: Do you own any firearms? Do you keep them locked and inaccessible to children?
I believe the questions come as a surprise because people dont usually think of gun ownership as something about which a doctor would or should be concerned.
But according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, homicide, suicide, and accidents are among the top three causes of death for Americans ages 0-54, and these deaths often involve firearms-over 30,000 per year. Thats seven times as many as die of cervical cancer, and nearly as many as die from pancreatic cancer annually.
Its seems to me difficult to argue that health professionals shouldnt be as interested in the prevention of gun violence as in the prevention of other causes of death.
Yet, doctors role in counseling patients about the potential danger of firearms is controversial, as expressed in this exchange. Some see such counseling as no different than speaking with patients about safe sex, smoking, and exercise. Some see it as an inappropriate intrusion of the doctors political views into the patients medical visit and an invasion of the patients privacy.
This latter view was in the news last fall when a Florida law, subsequently overturned by a federal judge, banned doctors from counseling patients about firearms, and would have imposed fines or even jail time on, for example, pediatricians who inquired about safe storage of guns in homes where children live.
In my own practice, most patients I ask about guns tell me that they dont own any. This isnt surprising because Massachusetts has one of the lowest gun ownership rates of any state in the U.S. (and, as it happens, the lowest rate of gun-related deaths).
And its possible that some patients dont wish to discuss their gun ownership with me and choose not to answer my questions about it.
But occasionally I have a conversation such as I had not long ago with a man who lived alone and kept his loaded guns unlocked and accessible. Now and then his young nieces and nephews visited and it hadnt occurred to him, until I asked, that his firearms might be a hazard to those children.
Im going to keep asking about firearms, especially in regard to those at highest risk of harm from them: children, patients struggling with depression, patients with difficult family relationships.
As a doctor, why wouldnt I?
Suzanne Koven is an internal medicine physician who blogs at In Practice at Boston.com, where this article originally appeared. She is the author of Say Hello To A Better Body: Weight Loss and Fitness For Women Over 50.
Excellent form, thanks for posting it. If 1 in 10 gun owners walked into the doc’s office with it, this practice would stop within a couple of weeks nationwide - word will get around, even if only 1 in 1,000 patients actually presents it to a doc. We have 300,000,000 people, probably at least 1/3 of which see a doc in any given year. Assuming that 1/2 of patients nationwide have a firearm in the home, then 1/6 of the population (roughly 50 million people) who have a firearm in the home will visit a doc in any given year - that’s nearly 1 million per week - let’s see the medical profession ignore THAT.
I would, however, warn anyone who uses that form in a doctor’s office that they may be liable to reimburse the doctor for the cost of a new set of underwear. :>)
Suzanne Koven M.D.
@SuzanneKovenMD
Primary care doctor at Mass General Hospital in Boston and columnist for the Boston Globe. Tweets are my own.
Boston · http://suzannekovenmd.com
Suzanne Koven M.D.@SuzanneKovenMD
#Doctors don’t like being told what to do-can we change?. My take on @Atul_Gawande’s essay in this week’s @NewYorker http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/blog/inpractice/2012/08/18_ways_to_do_a_pap_smear.html
http://twitter.com/SuzanneKovenMD
Suzanne Koven M.D.@SuzanneKovenMD
Do I need to be perfect to help my patients? or Why I wrote a #Chicken Soup for the Soul Book...and almost didn’t: http://www.piam.com/WIM_bulletin/healing0812.html
Suzanne Koven M.D.@SuzanneKovenMD
Stories heal! Huff Post article features new Chicken Soup/Harvard Health collaboration. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-c-senelick-md/patient-care_b_1410115.html
Suzanne Koven M.D.@SuzanneKovenMD
My take on moving NEJM story about #palliative and #hospice care for #undocumented immigrants: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/blog/inpractice/2012/06/a_powerless_immigrants_powerfu.html
Explains a lot, really.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.