Thought of everyone here… my sister just turned 65, and went to the doctor for a routine physical that week.
She whined at the nurse:
“WHY are you asking me all these questions? You never did before, is this some new mandate?”
“Sorry, Ma’m, we’ve always asked these of our seniors. And as of three days ago, you’re a higher-risk senior patient. So do you have hardwood floors with loose throw rugs?”
“And since when am I a ‘Ma’m’…?”
I never heard the gun question, but definitely “do you feel safe at home.” My dad once asked me if they always asked him that because he was old, or they asked everyone. I said they ask everyone.
I fell of a ladder last January and injured my knee, and before she asked that old favorite I was asked “have you had any recent falls” and I stared at the nurse until she finally smirked and asked “besides the one today.” I was very tempted to answer do you feel safe at home with “most of the time” after that.
Then again, He knew his audience. 
Bingo.
Yes all that would bother me aside from the sunscreen question. Granted I haven’t been to the doctor in probably 10 years, but I wasn’t asked any of that stuff. I want a doctor to be an expert on medicine, not give me a home safety quiz.
Does it ever make you upset by the amount of medical questions you don’t ask. The amount of people that leave a doctors office with unaddressed issues. Things that weren’t “the purpose of the visit” or important enough in the patients mind. Do you ever ask a patient that’s seeing you for a chest cold, if they have any unusual moles or skin issues that they want you to look at?
I bet you could sit down with patients as they were leaving their doctors office and come up with a list of 20 to 30 things they could’ve, would’ve, should’ve talked about if they would have been prompted by their doctor. All the little things. All the embarrassing things. All the infrequent things that tend to go away on their own. Maybe they just want reassurance about the things that come with normal aging.
If you have an extra minute with a patient and the best you can come up with is smoke detectors and sunscreen. You might statistically be helping them out, but your sure not providing any value.
Actually, I do always ask if there’s anything they want to bring up. That is why I can run over an hour behind. For someone coming in for a cold, of course I don’t ask all of these questions. For someone coming in for the first time or for a physical, all of these questions are on my list. This includes specifically asking about moles or skin lesions they are concerned about, any aches or pains they want to discuss and any sexual concerns ( which includes specifically asking “any feeling you might want to try Viagra or a similar medication” since men may be reluctant to bring it up with a female doctor).
Geez…some very contrary people in here. “How DARE a doctor ask me questions relating to my health and safety? Who do they think they are?!”
Well, yes. Got a problem with that?
Excellent points. I agree the annual physical is the time and place to ask about those little things that bother or worry you. A rash, an odd freckle/mole, that occasional sharp pain in your abdomen, spotting of blood, the vitiligo type spots, the ringing in your ears, that hip pain etc etc.
Guess what, you’ve just crossed a line from preventative to diagnostic care. Your doc may not be able to figure any of it out but now your insurance company may see additional billing codes that they will charge you for and your annual free physical has been converted into an billable office visit.
This is a bunch of crap. As long as the primary diagnosis is listed as a screening physical it is covered as a physical, which means no copay under the ACA. I no longer have to worry about accidentally finding something on a physical or having to make sure there is a problem for any patient whose insurance doesn’t cover routine physicals. As long as the appointment is booked and coded as a physical, everybody gets one copay-free physical yearly. I then can add the 20-30 other problems the patient is concerned about as secondary diagnoses.
You also can use a -25 modifier and maybe get paid something for the significant and separate additional work you are doing addressing and managing an illness issue that was added on to the work expected during a preventive care visit.
This is a little worrisome. These are just anecdotes, but…
I found out about a vitamin deficiency in a routine visit that would turn fatal in a few more years. (My diet has meat and vegetables, so the problem was me, not the diet.)
A friend of mine who was outwardly healthy (good diet, exercises, etc) but would only go to the doctor once a decade just to get his wife to stop bothering him found out he had high blood cholesterol. Again, it wasn’t a dietary issue. (He decided not to take medicine for a year, but the next visit, only a year later, showed it got worse. Fortunately he only has that one health issue.)
Since I could figure out why the doctor would ask these questions, I wouldn’t get angry. Either “yes, I have a gun/several guns” or “there are no guns in my home”. Or “I have no throw rugs” or “yeah, a few, I never thought I’d slip on one”, or “yes, I wear a seatbelt”. These aren’t off-topic questions.
You don’t want to know how long it had been before last time then. Probably 20 years. 
But yeah I will concede it’s definitely safer to go and get checked out once in a while. I still would politely decline to answer the questions though. I am happy to answer questions about smoking, diet, exercise, etc. But I’m not answering questions about household, possessions, etc. That’s just me, those things only seem vaguely relevant to my health.
Yet often they are more significant contributors to morbidity and mortality than things you do think as more relevant.
Preach it, @DSeid !
The things that make a big difference to longevity are mundane items like proper nutrition, widespread adequate obstetric care, clean drinking water, antibiotics for severe bacterial infections, exercise, not smoking, a good social life, lack of accidents, alcohol in moderation and avoiding chronic disease (and things that encourage them like morbid obesity or immobility). A bare handful of medicines like insulin for those who need it.
With my magic wand I cure every case of all heart disease. Poof! Longevity increases something like 1.6 years. I cure all cases of cancer instead! Poof! Longevity increases something like 1.8 years - truly amazing. These are surprisingly small amounts. Yet no one pays doctors much for preventive care. Apart from possibly pediatricians, most doctors do not do as much as they should.