NY Hospital System Says It Will Start Asking Patients About Guns

Emergency room patients at three Long Island hospitals will soon be asked whether or not they own a firearm, and your tax dollars are going to help pay to collect the information provided.  Northwell Health says the effort is part of a new screening program that is supposedly going to analyze the risks of gun ownership in patients, and the program’s being funded by a $1.4-million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

The CEO of the hospital system says while the pilot program will focus on three hospitals to start, eventually they plan to start questioning ER patients at every one of their hospitals.

The New Hyde Park-based health system said the grant is part of its “We Ask Everyone About Guns” research study, which approaches firearm injury risk similarly to other health risk factors that are part of routine care, like smoking, substance use and motor vehicle accidents.