Friggin' Liberal Doctors!

[LadySmith]

I went to a new medical office this week and the "New Patient Questionnaire" was full of intrusive questions. The worst question, in my opinion, was the one that asked, "IS THERE A GUN IN THE HOUSE?"

My answer was "NO," which was truthful because there are, in fact, multiple guns in the house, not just "a" gun. I wouldn't have told the truth if I had been put to the test, but I was glad that I didn't have to lie about it.

Fortunately there was no question that asked, "Are you packing heat today?" because the answer to that would have been "yes," though I would have lied to keep the peace.

WHY DO THESE LIBERAL MEDICAL DOCTORS HATE GUNS SO MUCH? Guns don't kill people . . . people kill people.

Have any of you seen these iinvasive questions at youru doctor's offices? How do you reply?

Thanks,
ls

 

[Len-2A Training]

Yes, they've been on the questionnaires for years. I leave them blank, but my doc knows that I own guns and am a Firearms Instructor, as he also knew that I used to be a Reserve PO (not all owned guns but it could be a reasonable assumption).

 

[radioman]

I've had 11 different doctors in the past 8 years and I've never run across that question? I guess central MA might be a little more gun friendly.

 

[Garys]

You don't have to answer that question, although you wouldn't know that from looking at the form.

My doctor asked me about that several years ago when I first went to him. I told him yes. He then asked me if they were loaded. I told him yes because they weren't much good to me unloaded. That was the last time he ever brought it up.

I don't know if most doctors are liberal, but most medical organizations (AMA and others) ARE decidedly liberal.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

Appropriate answer is "boundary violation".

 

[Fixxah]

My doc doesn't care, he's Iranian and has better shit back there.

Sent from my SPH-M580 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Diskothek]

I wonder if you go where I work, name of the form rings a bell. You aren't obligated to answer. And not all doctors are alike, the one I personally work with isn't very 2A friendly but he doesn't give a crap and doesn't bring it up with patients. Actually, when he inherits patients from doctors who have retired or moved to other practices he takes that part out of their chart if its noted since it has nothing to do with medical care.

 

[MAGA99]

My regular doctor since I was a kid has never asked me but he probably knows, as I've run into him at rod and gun club before!!

They asked my wife and I at the hospital when we had a baby last year, I said NO. My wife then told me that they had asked her at a previous appt. where I wasn't there and she replied yes. Many follow-ups about proper safes/locks and basically told her to get rid of them.....never mentioned it to me though!! So far, no fall-out from conflicting info on questionnaires. F em.

I think an appropriate answer if asked again would be 'How much do you weigh? Are you on the pill? What are your thoughts on abortion? How about politics and religion?'

 

[Kicker96FS]

I could care less. I had that question at the beginning of the year, like you I put NO, but then added in tiny writing under it, between their lines, "there are many, in fact channel 5 would call it and arsenal (more than 1)" No one batted an eye. Then during an appointment my Dr. ask the usual "how ya doing, what did you do today". I told him I spent the morning at the range shooting, he tried to act cool like he was doing what he should be with his computer but he started to type on the keyboard fast. I grinned.

 

[Infinite Jester]

Questions like these are being slipped into medical question forms over the last few years. I believe the doctors are compartmentalized to it usually. It's more spy training. Women who go in for childbirth are asked by nurses questions like "Do you have enough money at home?" and "Do you and your husband ever fight?". Those answers are put into a system that, whether the unwitting patient knows it or not, is linked to CPS. Then a "nice" person from the state can come visit you at home. What they don't tell you is that a child is 7 times more likely to be sexually abused in state care, and 5 times more likely to be physically abused. I leave all questions that don't pertain to my reason for being there blank.

 

[MA_Shooter]

I've been asked 'do you feel safe at home?' but never about guns.

 

[In God We Trust]

We just had a baby last month and nobody asked us any stupid questions. The only thing I remember is my wife being asked if she wanted to speak to a social worker. She said, no and that was it. No prying, no gun questions.

 

[earthshine402]

When I visited a new doctor last year, I explained to her I shoot quite a bit, but have never had blood lead level tests. She immediately got excited and said "oh, I love guns!" We talked a bit, and then she said "I carry a Smith and Wesson" and pulled a little 642 revolver out of her pocket! Awesome!

I'm in NH btw.

 

[NetDoc]

It seems as if any perceived "negative" about guns leads to outraged threads on NES. Recently, I considered responding to a few threads about criminals caught by police with guns where people responded with support for the criminal. This current thread is another one where, as responsible gun owners, we should be informed and aware of the risks and negatives of gun ownership. If we ignore these completely, we may lose credibility for more important stances on issues.

Physicians should ask about gun ownership, just as they should ask about seat belt usage and other issues. There have been many, many well done studies approaching this from many different directions and published in prestigious journals that demonstrate a very significant - 2-5 fold increase - in suicides in homes where guns are readily available. Depression is a very real issue for a substantial percentage of society, and thoughts of suicide are quite common. Of all the methods of suicide, guns are both rapid and effective. Suicidal thinking often passes or can be managed, but not if someone has already acted on the impulse. Before arguing with the points I have made, I suggest you read a relatively recent editorial in the NEJM - arguably the most influential medical journal in the world: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0805923

This is not about liberal doctors. It is about good doctors, doing their job properly. The responses to such a questionnaire aren't going to go in some "big brother" database. They are going to help guide your physician when he/she might wonder about depression or suicide risk.

 

[Jose]

It seems as if any perceived "negative" about guns leads to outraged threads on NES. Recently, I considered responding to a few threads about criminals caught by police with guns where people responded with support for the criminal. This current thread is another one where, as responsible gun owners, we should be informed and aware of the risks and negatives of gun ownership. If we ignore these completely, we may lose credibility for more important stances on issues.

Physicians should ask about gun ownership, just as they should ask about seat belt usage and other issues. There have been many, many well done studies approaching this from many different directions and published in prestigious journals that demonstrate a very significant - 2-5 fold increase - in suicides in homes where guns are readily available. Depression is a very real issue for a substantial percentage of society, and thoughts of suicide are quite common. Of all the methods of suicide, guns are both rapid and effective. Suicidal thinking often passes or can be managed, but not if someone has already acted on the impulse. Before arguing with the points I have made, I suggest you read a relatively recent editorial in the NEJM - arguably the most influential medical journal in the world: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0805923

This is not about liberal doctors. It is about good doctors, doing their job properly. The responses to such a questionnaire aren't going to go in some "big brother" database. They are going to help guide your physician when he/she might wonder about depression or suicide risk.

Oh boy, where to begin.....

1) I can inform myself about the "risks" of gun ownership, such as they are, thank you very much. I don't need your superior intellect, nor that of your profession in general, to feed them to me. Nor does anyone else. Whether your patients know those risks or not is none of your GD business. You are paid to treat illness and injury, not to be a social ****ing worker.

2) You seem to assume that it is us who are losing credibility, or need to regain it. I don't know how deep that hole in the ground that you've been living in is, but I do know this: it is the antis who have already lost virtually ALL credibility in any matter related to firearms.

3) I call bullshit on your "prestigious" studies and journals. Any decent statistician can destroy just about any anti-gun study ever done regardless of the source.

4) Physicians should not ask about seat belt use or any other subject that does not related directly to the reason for the patient's visit. Prying about unrelated topics to the medical issue at hand is not what you are being paid for. STFU and fix the problem presented by your CLIENT. Don't go incurring into boundary violations by prying into areas in which you have zero professional expertise.

Your hubris is gigantic and your sense of importance in the lives of your CLIENTS is dramatically exaggerated, Doc.

 

[NetDoc]

Depression is an illness that physicians are trained to treat, and it is a substantial part of the practice of any internist. It is there job to look for, detect, and treat depression in their patients. And, in depressed patients, it is their job to assess the risk of suicide, both in the thoughts of the patient and the likelihood of it occurring. Patients saved from suicides by medication and other treatment are typically very pleased that they weren't simply ignored.

Studies on suicide and guns aren't "anti" studies. They are medical studies. Like it or not, sometimes the weight of medical literature falls in the wrong direction for convenience. For years, people railed against studies showing the danger of smoking. Whether or not you take that risk, there is no question about the conclusion that smoking causes emphysema and lung cancer. Same thing here; there are enough well done studies demonstrating this risk to demonstrate that it is correct. When published in places like the NEJM, they have been scrutinized by expert statisticians before being published.

Good medicine (esp. internal medicine, family medicine and pediatrics) isn't just about fixing a broken bone or treating high blood pressure. It SHOULD be about caring about the patient as a whole - their "medical" problem, the interaction with their psychological state, and their social milieu. Their goal is to maintain patients in a happy, healthy state.

This isn't hubris. It is the discipline of medicine when practiced as we are all trained.

 

[FrugalFannie]

I went to a new medical office this week and the "New Patient Questionnaire" was full of intrusive questions. The worst question, in my opinion, was the one that asked, "IS THERE A GUN IN THE HOUSE?"

My answer was "NO," which was truthful because there are, in fact, multiple guns in the house, not just "a" gun. I wouldn't have told the truth if I had been put to the test, but I was glad that I didn't have to lie about it.

Fortunately there was no question that asked, "Are you packing heat today?" because the answer to that would have been "yes," though I would have lied to keep the peace.

WHY DO THESE LIBERAL MEDICAL DOCTORS HATE GUNS SO MUCH? Guns don't kill people . . . people kill people.

Have any of you seen these iinvasive questions at youru doctor's offices? How do you reply?

Thanks,
ls

Specifically doctors and their medical mistakes kill people. HA! Next time ask them how many times they have had a malpractice complaint filed against them.

 

[SamH]

Water causes drowning.

 

[fubar]

Gun ownership doesn't lead to depression. The AMA study on the Brady Bill proved to Doctors that gun control has zero effect on suicide rates. It only changes the method used.

Why doesn't this data gathering concern itself more with my sense of humor , state of my relationship , views on whether or not I believe suicide is moral or not , or whether or not my I am happy ?

A doctor concerned about someone killing them self with a legally owned gun is the potential beginning of the state preemptively seizing them.

The increasing consolidation of personal info the doctors , banks , insurance companies - government controlled insurance companies and state held firearms databases make me wonder if an overly concerned doctor will lead to confiscation.

Of course doctors are just being Good , by concerning themselves with whether or not one has a means to kill their self. Do they ask if I have any rope , poison , percodan , or very high places in my life either ?

 

[Boris]

We just had a baby last month and nobody asked us any stupid questions. The only thing I remember is my wife being asked if she wanted to speak to a social worker. She said, no and that was it. No prying, no gun questions.

my wife had to fill out "depression" questionnaire after we had our baby. Shit, I was the one staying home and being depressed

 

[pastera]

It seems as if any perceived "negative" about guns leads to outraged threads on NES. Recently, I considered responding to a few threads about criminals caught by police with guns where people responded with support for the criminal. This current thread is another one where, as responsible gun owners, we should be informed and aware of the risks and negatives of gun ownership. If we ignore these completely, we may lose credibility for more important stances on issues.

Physicians should ask about gun ownership, just as they should ask about seat belt usage and other issues. There have been many, many well done studies approaching this from many different directions and published in prestigious journals that demonstrate a very significant - 2-5 fold increase - in suicides in homes where guns are readily available. Depression is a very real issue for a substantial percentage of society, and thoughts of suicide are quite common. Of all the methods of suicide, guns are both rapid and effective. Suicidal thinking often passes or can be managed, but not if someone has already acted on the impulse. Before arguing with the points I have made, I suggest you read a relatively recent editorial in the NEJM - arguably the most influential medical journal in the world: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0805923

This is not about liberal doctors. It is about good doctors, doing their job properly. The responses to such a questionnaire aren't going to go in some "big brother" database. They are going to help guide your physician when he/she might wonder about depression or suicide risk.

Sorry but your assertion that having a gun in the house increases the risk of suicide is a blatant lie - wordwide statistics show that only the method of suicide changes not the rate when comparing similar cultures.

The only reason my doctor would need to know about my firearms is for awarness of lead levels.

Please expound on the "risks and negatives" of gun ownership that are inherent and abnormal (IE: significantly more risky than other outdoor activities like bicycling, hiking, skiing, football, ...)

 

[alohadoug]

Who has the link to the Harvard study about suicides and guns? I have the hard copy on my desk and I'm on my phone and can't find the thread. Basically, a group of researchers did a review of a large number of studies and determined that banning guns would have no influence on the suicide rate.

Just something else to consider, Netdoc.

Aloha

 

[Terminator03]

I've been asked 'do you feel safe at home?' but never about guns.

I would say "Yes, I feel safe at home because I have so many guns"!

 

[rrogan]

It seems as if any perceived "negative" about guns leads to outraged threads on NES. Recently, I considered responding to a few threads about criminals caught by police with guns where people responded with support for the criminal. This current thread is another one where, as responsible gun owners, we should be informed and aware of the risks and negatives of gun ownership. If we ignore these completely, we may lose credibility for more important stances on issues.

Physicians should ask about gun ownership, just as they should ask about seat belt usage and other issues. There have been many, many well done studies approaching this from many different directions and published in prestigious journals that demonstrate a very significant - 2-5 fold increase - in suicides in homes where guns are readily available. Depression is a very real issue for a substantial percentage of society, and thoughts of suicide are quite common. Of all the methods of suicide, guns are both rapid and effective. Suicidal thinking often passes or can be managed, but not if someone has already acted on the impulse. Before arguing with the points I have made, I suggest you read a relatively recent editorial in the NEJM - arguably the most influential medical journal in the world: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0805923

This is not about liberal doctors. It is about good doctors, doing their job properly. The responses to such a questionnaire aren't going to go in some "big brother" database. They are going to help guide your physician when he/she might wonder about depression or suicide risk.

You're right, doctors should ask if you own guns in MA ...I am more likely to be depressed due to having to jump through all these hoops to obey the laws. If there were fewer laws, I'd be a much happier person.

 

[Len-2A Training]

NetDoc . . . then why do many report that the docs tell them that they should GET RID of the guns in the house?? That response to the questions about gun ownership prove to me that the knowledge, training, advice of said docs is severely inappropriate. Do they ask about Skidoos, ATVs, what pills you have in the house, etc.? They're dangerous too.

The only time guns and docs should cross paths (besides on the range) is when it's directly related to the medical issue at hand. I ripped up my rotator cuff once and later asked my ortho surgeon when he thought it safe to shoot again. Oh yeah, he was a member of the same gun club. Another time I decided it was smart to get a lead test and to justify to the insurance company there has to be a reason. I LOVE BR&P . . . lead levels were real low.

PennyPincher, I like how you think!

 

[Terminator03]

Gun ownership doesn't lead to depression. The AMA study on the Brady Bill proved to Doctors that gun control has zero effect on suicide rates. It only changes the method used.

Why doesn't this data gathering concern itself more with my sense of humor , state of my relationship , views on whether or not I believe suicide is moral or not , or whether or not my I am happy ?

A doctor concerned about someone killing them self with a legally owned gun is the potential beginning of the state preemptively seizing them.

The increasing consolidation of personal info the doctors , banks , insurance companies - government controlled insurance companies and state held firearms databases make me wonder if an overly concerned doctor will lead to confiscation.

Of course doctors are just being Good , by concerning themselves with whether or not one has a means to kill their self. Do they ask if I have any rope , poison , percodan , or very high places in my life either ?

Very good points here!

 

[Jose]

Good medicine (esp. internal medicine, family medicine and pediatrics) isn't just about fixing a broken bone or treating high blood pressure. It SHOULD be about caring about the patient as a whole - their "medical" problem, the interaction with their psychological state, and their social milieu. Their goal is to maintain patients in a happy, healthy state.

This isn't hubris. It is the discipline of medicine when practiced as we are all trained.

I will tell you what your role in my medical care will be. I pay the piper, so I get to call the tune.

Comprendes?

 

[TReischl]

Oh boy, where to begin.....

1) I can inform myself about the "risks" of gun ownership, such as they are, thank you very much. I don't need your superior intellect, nor that of your profession in general, to feed them to me. Nor does anyone else. Whether your patients know those risks or not is none of your GD business. You are paid to treat illness and injury, not to be a social ****ing worker.

2) You seem to assume that it is us who are losing credibility, or need to regain it. I don't know how deep that hole in the ground that you've been living in is, but I do know this: it is the antis who have already lost virtually ALL credibility in any matter related to firearms.

3) I call bullshit on your "prestigious" studies and journals. Any decent statistician can destroy just about any anti-gun study ever done regardless of the source.

4) Physicians should not ask about seat belt use or any other subject that does not related directly to the reason for the patient's visit. Prying about unrelated topics to the medical issue at hand is not what you are being paid for. STFU and fix the problem presented by your CLIENT. Don't go incurring into boundary violations by prying into areas in which you have zero professional expertise.

Your hubris is gigantic and your sense of importance in the lives of your CLIENTS is dramatically exaggerated, Doc.

Jose? Why do you feel the need to constantly insult any person you do not agree with? Where do you get off telling other people what their job descriptions are? Exactly who do YOU think YOU are anyhow telling someone to STFU?

Exactly why are you trolling a Northeast forum insulting anyone you can, when you live in Ohio, are you bored? Ohio is not part of the Northeast region of the U.S.

Now I will sit back and watch him spew his hatred and venom on me, it will be good therapy for him and probably keep him from pulling the wings off flies.

 

[TReischl]

The "guns in the house" question is legit, but it can be abused, like a lot of things. Here is how I see it:

Doc knows you have guns.

He needs to prescribe something that can cause you to have depression, possibly severe. Could cause you to be suicidal.

GREAT idea if he knows BEFOREHAND that you have guns in the house. He might want to discuss the situation with you BEFORE you start taking those pills.

BUT, some of the health pro's are anti gun and use it to push their dogma....they are aholes and misusing the purpose for which that question is intended.

Simple as that.

- - - Updated - - -

I will tell you what your role in my medical care will be. I pay the piper, so I get to call the tune.

Comprendes?

He WILL tell you just like Steve Jobs told his docs.....and died stupidly.

 

[Jose]

Where do you get off telling other people what their job descriptions are? Exactly who do YOU think YOU are anyhow telling someone to STFU?

When I pay for the service, I have the absolute right to control it. That's how I get off telling other people what their job description is and what they will or will not discuss with me.

Exactly why are you trolling a Northeast forum insulting anyone you can, when you live in Ohio, are you bored? Ohio is not part of the Northeast region of the U.S.

That's for me to know and for you to find out.