………Don’t Borrow Trouble
If a doctor asks you any questions re: firearms in your home , print out a copy of this and hand it to him/her…….
AND id he/she says this line of questioning is government required , ask to to those requirements… There is NONE!
===
Risk Management Advice to Physicians and Malpractice Insurance
Providers: Don’t Borrow Trouble.
(c) 2001
By Joe Horn, [email protected]
One of the best games in town is litigation, and litigating against
physicians is even more popular (and more successful) than suing gun manufacturers.
Physicians and their malpractice insurance carriers are well aware that litigators
are constantly looking for new opportunities to sue. Let’s talk about
one of those new areas of liability exposure.
Nowadays, many physicians and other health care providers are
engaging in the very risky, well intentioned, albeit naive and politically
inspired business of asking their patients about ownership, maintenance and
storage of firearms in the home, and even suggesting removal of those firearms from the
home. Some could argue that this is a “boundary violation,” and it probably is, but there
is another very valid reason why these professionals should NOT engage in this practice — MASSIVE LIABILITY.
Physicians are licensed and certified in the practice of medicine,
the treatment of illnesses and injuries, and in preventative activities.
They may advise or answer questions about those issues. However, when
physicians give advice about firearms safety in the home, without certification
in that field, and without physically INSPECTING that particular home and
those particular firearms, they are functioning outside the practice of
medicine. Furthermore, if they fail to review the gamut of safety issues in
the home, such as those relating to electricity, drains, disposals,
compactors, garage doors, driveway safety, pool safety, pool fence codes and special
locks for pool gates, auto safety, gas, broken glass, stored cleaning
chemicals, buckets, toilets, sharp objects, garden tools, home tools, power
tools, lawnmowers, lawn chemicals, scissors, needles, forks, knives, and on
and on, well, you get the drift. A litigator could easily accuse that
physician of being NEGLIGENT for not covering whichever one of those things that
ultimately led to the death or injury of a child or any one in the family or
even a visitor to the patient’s home. Why open the door to civil liability?
To engage in Home Safety Counseling without certification, license
or formal training in home safety and Risk Management and to concentrate on
one small politically correct area, i.e., firearms to the neglect of ALL of the other
safety issues in the modern home, is to invite a lawsuit because the safety
counselor, (Physician) Knew, Could have known or Should have known that there were other
dangers to the occupants of that house more immediate than firearms.
Things like swimming pools, buckets of water, and chemicals in homes are
involved in the death or injury of many more children than accidental
firearms discharge [ Source: CDC.] Firearms are a statistically small, nearly
negligible fraction of the items involved in home injuries.
Physicians SHOULD know that. So, why all of a sudden do some physicians
consider themselves to be firearms and home safety experts? Where is their
concern for all the other home safety issues that they DON’T cover with their patients?
If you are going to counsel in any aspect of home safety, you had better be
certified in that subject and cover all aspects of home safety, not just the
politically popular ones.
Once physicians start down this path of home safety counseling, they
are completely on their own. A review of their medical malpractice
insurance will reveal that if they engage in an activity for which they are
not certified, the carrier will not cover them if (or when) they are
sued.
Consider a physician asking the following questions of his or her
malpractice insurance carrier:
One of my patients is suing me for NOT warning them that furniture
polish was poisonous and their child drank it and died. I only warned them
about firearms, drugs and alcohol. Am I covered for counseling patients
about firearms safety while not mentioning and giving preventative advice
about all the other dangers in the home, and doing so without formal
training or certification in any aspect of home safety risk management? You know
their answer.
How much training and certification do I need to become a Home
Safety Expert Doctor? They will tell you that you are either a pediatrician or you
are the National Safety Council. But, you don’t have certification to do the
National Safety Council’s job for them.
Homeowners and parents are civilly or criminally responsible for the
safety or lack thereof in their homes. My advice to physicians is to not
borrow trouble by presuming to be able to dispense safety advice outside
your area of expertise: the practice of medicine. Your insurance carrier will
love you if you simply treat injuries and illnesses, dispense advice on how
to care for sick or injured persons, manage sanitation problems and try to
prevent disease, but stay out of the Risk Management business unless you are
trained and certified to do it. For example, E.R. doctors do not tell
accident victims how to drive safely.
Now, let’s discuss the very serious issues involving the lawful
possession and use of firearms for self and home defense, and the danger and liabilities associated with advising patients to severely encumber the firearm(s) with locked storage, or advising the patient to remove them entirely. Patient X is told by Doctor Y to remove or lock up a firearm so it is not accessible for slef and home defense. Patient X, does as counseled and has no firearm available at closehand. Subsequently, patient is then the victim of a home invasion and calls 911, but the police are buried in calls and don’t arrive for 20 minutes during which time Patient X is raped, robbed and murdered. Anyone can see the liability issue here, particularly Risk Management specialists and liability insurance carriers.
It’s just a matter of when and not if this will happen. Sooner
or later, it will – if a home invasion
takes place and Patient X takes Doctor Y’s advice.
Now, imagine what follows this horrendous but common event. Who is to blame?
The perpetrator is long gone, and even so, the Plaintiff’s litigator
will state that the perpetrator could have been neutralized by the appropriate
lawful defensive use of a firearm, which had been in the home, but was no
longer available to the deceased/injured because he/she followed a Physician’s expert
advice to render him/herself and his/her home defenseless against violent crime
The Litigator will further argue that the Physician Knew, Could have
known, Should have known that removing a firearm from use for home defense
would result in harm to the patient if and when a crime was committed
against the patient in the home, as any reasonable person would have surmised.
If one acknowledges the already dangerous general liability of home
safety counseling and then adds the very risky practice of advising
patients to disarm themselves in the face of the reality of violent crime daily
perpetrated against home owners, condo and apartment tenants, it is
apparent that the Physician is placing him/herself in a very risky position for
suit.
It is my strong recommendation to Malpractice Carriers and those
Physicians they insure to strictly avoid this high risk practice and reserve
counseling for the area of expertise in which they are certified: Medicine. In
my professional opinion, this is an emotionally charged political issue
that Physicians and their Carriers should not be manipulated for whatever
well-intentioned reason into taking the risk, which is
considerable……
Physicians in doubt of the veracity of what I’ve said are encouraged
to call their carriers and ask them what they currently cover, and to ask if
this new counseling policy is covered under the existing policy. We
already know what they will say: Don’t borrow trouble.
***
Since retiring from the LA County Sheriff’s Department, Mr. Horn has
provided Risk Management and related issue Human resource consulting. Among other
firms, he has consulted to IBM, Gates Lear jet, National Semiconductor, and
Pinkerton International Security and Protection Services.