Well, I got the "Any guns in home?" question.

[Paulo_Santos]

Oh my god. Some of you guys need to lighten up. My kids doctor asked us about guns, child seats, and a bunch of other silly questions. I told them I am a police officer and I have guns, so she just said, "obviously you know about gun safety and how to properly store them." That's it. She asked about the child seats and I told her I was a certified child seat inspector at work and she said, "oh, that's awesome." They are just asking questions to help out.

[FortTom]

Oh my god. Some of you guys need to lighten up. My kids doctor asked us about guns, child seats, and a bunch of other silly questions. I told them I am a police officer and I have guns, so she just said, "obviously you know about gun safety and how to properly store them." That's it. She asked about the child seats and I told her I was a certified child seat inspector at work and she said, "oh, that's awesome." They are just asking questions to help out.

While you make valid points, I have to question if I'd had received the same courteous banter, by not having LEO credentials. And no matter what their motives, some boundaries are still in place even with the best doctor-patient relationship. I don't doubt that "they are asking questions to help out". But to what end? Politically motivated, typically intrusive liberal ideals, or strictly children's health. I think it's presumptive to advise people to lighten up, on such a hot button issue, to begin with. Surely, if someone is intelligent enough to get through medical school, they have to know that it's not always going to bode well to ask all patients intrusive questions, having nothing to do with their child's fever, or check-up.

As mentioned already, I seriously doubt that they are going to be happy as can be if you ask them when they had their last drink, how much they drink, are they under the influence of marijuana, etc..etc.. questions that definitely go to your providers ability practice medicine on a child or anyone else.

FT

[Paulo_Santos]

While you make valid points, I have to question if I'd had received the same courteous banter, by not having LEO credentials. And no matter what their motives, some boundaries are still in place even with the best doctor-patient relationship. I don't doubt that "they are asking questions to help out". But to what end? Politically motivated, typically intrusive liberal ideals, or strictly children's health. I think it's presumptive to advise people to lighten up, on such a hot button issue, to begin with. Surely, if someone is intelligent enough to get through medical school, they have to know that it's not always going to bode well to ask all patients intrusive questions, having nothing to do with their child's fever, or check-up.

As mentioned already, I seriously doubt that they are going to be happy as can be if you ask them when they had their last drink, how much they drink, are they under the influence of marijuana, etc..etc.. questions that definitely go to your providers ability practice medicine on a child or anyone else.

FT

I have friends who are non LE and were asked the same questions and they have guns. They all answered the questions and nothing else was asked. The doctor actually gave one of my friends some good advise on child seats, which happens to be the same advice I give.

[FortTom]

P_Santos,
If your friends are more than happy to answer those questions, and go merrily along their way, I have no problem with that. If your doctor is qualified to give advice on child seat safety, even better.

But to suggest that all people should be so willing to be so forthcoming about their personal business, that has nothing to do with the issue at hand is myopic at best. My children are both grown adults with families of their own. They can choose to answer or not answer such questions if they choose to, and I say so be it. But as I stated, any non-related information is "ask at your own risk". If the doctor get's shut down immediately in their questioning, then they should be professional enough to realized that they have crossed boundaries, and go on about the task in hand. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with looking for another doctor, neither party will be injured by doing so.

Had I ever been asked some personal non-related information about my family, or anything else for that matter, other than polite conversation, I would have asked them why they would ask something of such a personal nature, made it clear that some things are "off limits", and gone about my business. If that mean having to find another doctor, then so be it.

The bottom line? I think is for the individual to decide for themselves, and answer or choose not too, without being judged, or compelled to take either side of the issue.

FT

[Paulo_Santos]

P_Santos,
If your friends are more than happy to answer those questions, and go merrily along their way, I have no problem with that. If your doctor is qualified to give advice on child seat safety, even better.

But to suggest that all people should be so willing to be so forthcoming about their personal business, that has nothing to do with the issue at hand is myopic at best. My children are both grown adults with families of their own. They can choose to answer or not answer such questions if they choose to, and I say so be it. But as I stated, any non-related information is "ask at your own risk". If the doctor get's shut down immediately in their questioning, then they should be professional enough to realized that they have crossed boundaries, and go on about the task in hand. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with looking for another doctor, neither party will be injured by doing so.

Had I ever been asked some personal non-related information about my family, or anything else for that matter, other than polite conversation, I would have asked them why they would ask something of such a personal nature, made it clear that some things are "off limits", and gone about my business. If that mean having to find another doctor, then so be it.

The bottom line? I think is for the individual to decide for themselves, and answer or choose not too, without being judged, or compelled to take either side of the issue.

FT

Everyone has the right to look for a different doctor if they choose. I personally think it is silly to go so far when at the end of the day, nothing is gonna happen if you say yes. Or just say no.

[Hmac]

"guns in home" is a check-box on the computer screen on the doctor's EHR. You guys would like to believe that the doctor has some kind of emotional or political interest in your answer or will be offended by or "learn a lesson" from your snarky answers. They don't. It's actually being promoted by states, specialty organizations, or the Federal government...they're the ones who care about the answer for their statistical and/or political purposes. In some cases, it's the clinic that the doctor works for that tracks the item as part of their per-doctor auditing process. The vast majority of doctors don't care any more than they care about your history of chicken pox - professionally important, emotionally not-invested. That data, like your history of smoking or your Body Mass Index, will probably someday (if not already) be available to those organizations even without your permission. IMHO, a good reason to either answer "no", or just politely refuse to answer. One wonders what happens if your health record reflects that you own guns, and at some point down the road you end up being treated or hosptialized for depression or if you someday get a restrainiing order filed against you. Your health record would be a pretty convenient place to look for that stuff.

The "guns in home" check box exists in every single brand of Electronic Health Record software. The vast majority of doctors don't even bother with the question. That may change. The Feds through CMS are providing incentives for asking certain questions as part of the medical history-taking process and developing standardized problem lists. Some insurance companies already do this. In a couple of years they plan on providing monetary penalities if the record DOESN'T contain certain items or protocols (google "meaningful use").



.

[FortTom]

Everyone has the right to look for a different doctor if they choose. I personally think it is silly to go so far when at the end of the day, nothing is gonna happen if you say yes. Or just say no.

Really? Changing doctors? That's all you see in the whole conversation? Hell, I've changed doctors, just because I didn't like the one I had. I'm sure the doctor didn't care, any more than I did. Funny thing, the new one was just down the hall from the old one.

"guns in home" is a check-box on the computer screen on the doctor's EHR. You guys would like to believe that the doctor has some kind of emotional or political interest in your answer or will be offended by or "learn a lesson" from your snarky answers. They don't. It's actually being promoted by states, specialty organizations, or the Federal government...they're the ones who care about the answer for their statistical and/or political purposes.. In a couple of years they plan on providing monetary penalities if the record DOESN'T contain certain items or protocols (google "meaningful use")..

"Statistical and or POLIITCAL purposes"? It doesn't matter who's asking the question, it's what they're doing with the information. I want to volunteer information to them for sure.

Really, you paint with a wide brush brother. "You Guy's"," snarky answers". I certainly don't want to have a feud with a doctor. I will shut him/her down if they're being nosy, no matter who they're collecting the information for, and for what purposes.

I guess you trust the government a lot more than I do. If so, that's cool. No information will ever be used against you, by what ever government agency they are collecting it for. I guess.

Let see, the IRS, Homeland Security, BATFE, Justice Department, NSA, Spying on US Citizens, Drones, and on and on. Nah, no chance of anything nefarious going on with a little more of your personal info getting into the hands of federal bureaucrats. Besides if they think of abusing their powers, all those involved will just have a simultaneous hard drive crash, and lose it anyway.

HMAC you just keep believing that, "it's for the children/for the community" mantra that the liberals love to use. It worked beautifully for Hitler, and despots ever since.

Seriously HMAC, it concerns me, not one bit, what you wish to talk to your doctor about. I judge you not one iota, you're a free person, in a "for now", still free country. It is entirely your business, and yours alone.

You ought to extend that same courtesy to those who disagree with you, by not watering the whole issue down to "snarky answers" for the rest of us, whose whole life is not an open book to our doctors, government functionaries, etc..

FT

[Hmac]

You need to read my position a little closer. You completely missed the point.

Let me break it down into easier-to-understand bites:

• your doctor doesn't really care about guns in the home
• if your doctor ever asks you a question you're not comfortable answering, then just politely decline
• if they ask you about guns in the home, IMHO you should just answer "no", or decline to answer. That's not information you want in the hands of the government. I go through my medical record often and delete stuff that's inaccurate or that I don't want shared.
• there's no need to be impolite to the doctor no matter how good it feels. He/she isn't being impolite to you and he/she might fire you as a patient.

[KevinBLC]

I don't really get why people are fired up about this. When Doc asks, I just told him no. It wasn't a big deal. Not sure why some get offended. It's like if a stranger asked you a personal question. No need to get fired up, just say none of your business or move along. No one needs to be rude. My 2 cents.

[Hmac]

I don't really get why people are fired up about this. When Doc asks, I just told him no. It wasn't a big deal. Not sure why some get offended. It's like if a stranger asked you a personal question. No need to get fired up, just say none of your business or move along. No one needs to be rude. My 2 cents.

Exactly. Thank you.

[ddearmon2010]

my answer to this question is always the same.... what has that got to do with (whatever I'm there for)? is a gun going to inflame the symptoms?

[Hmac]

my answer to this question is always the same.... what has that got to do with (whatever I'm there for)? is a gun going to inflame the symptoms?

It has nothing to do with your health. The government is building a database on us. That question is just one more data point.

[skijunkie55]

When my daughter was born in July, her doctor had to be called in to discharge my wife and the baby from the hospital. He wasn't answering his pager so they called his home. His wife said "you'll have to keep trying to page him. He's out at the shooting range."

I'm not too concerned about that question coming up :)
west side of Michigan is 100x better than the east side.

[Hmac]

When my daughter was born in July, her doctor had to be called in to discharge my wife and the baby from the hospital. He wasn't answering his pager so they called his home. His wife said "you'll have to keep trying to page him. He's out at the shooting range."

I'm not too concerned about that question coming up :)
west side of Michigan is 100x better than the east side.

The government provides financial incentives now, ultimately financial sanctions, for "meaningful use" of electronic health records. Their interpretation of meaningful use is, among other things, obtaining certain data points during an exam. Currently, those are things like smoking, recording the weight, blood pressure, etc, but it's certainly no stretch to see the point where physicians are incented for asking about things like guns in home, driving record, amount of alcohol you drink etc, then penalized for not asking and recording.

[WHSmithIV]

I'm just glad we chose Idaho to live in when we left Finland.