Mass. Medical Society Meeting - Firearm Violence: Policy, Prevention,Public Health

It all comes down to this:

http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2016/04/doctors-guns-questions

Healey flapped her bleeding heart liberal gums about guns at the MMS meeting.

Some stand-out quotes from the article:

“Physicians ask patients about everything from use of seat belts to alcohol and drug use to vaccinations,” she said. “For God’s sake, you mean physicians should be precluded from asking about the most lethal consumer product out there: a gun? That’s just wrong.”

Last I checked, alcohol and cars, both consumer products, kill more people per year than guns.

During the medical society’s forum on preventing gun violence, Dr. Chris Barsotti told the story of a patient brought to an emergency room after the patient’s dad called police.

“There’s a patient who had a high-capacity weapon and he had a fight with his dad,” Barsotti said.


The patient’s medical record showed a history of risky behaviors.


“He’d been in fights. We also thought that maybe he abuses narcotics, because he’s been here a lot and had prescriptions filled in this state and that state,” he said.


But this was all confidential information. Barsotti could have ignored privacy rules and alerted police, but only if he thought the patient was an imminent risk to himself or others. Barsotti said he didn’t know how to decide: immediate danger, future danger, none at all?


“I have no guidelines,” he said. “I just know there’s this person who has a large gun that’s caused concern in the community, but I don’t know what I can do about it.”

Some doctors say Healey should press for legislation that would release doctors to disclose patient information more often in the spirit of public protection.

And there it is. As of now HIPPA laws preclude healthcare providers from violating provider-patient confidentiality unless that patient is an imminent threat to themselves or others. They want this changed so that the provider can drop a dime on a gun-owning patient based upon arbitrary judgment. Suppose a patient answers yes to a moonbat doctor's gun question, then years later comes in because he feels mildly depressed, or wants to seek counseling for stress management? Bye bye LTC, bye bye guns.
 
^This. There is no way out of this one. Everyone should answer with a simple "No." It's gotten to the point where there's no way you can win.
 
Doctors are creating more work for themselves, not to mention additional liability.

Someone came in to see you for a sore throat and then 2 months later they killed themselves.
Did you ask him about guns back then? Oh you didn't? Well, guess what, you are getting sueeeeeeed. [smile]
 
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