I did later understand why it was done, and certainly don’t have any problem with that sort of thing now. BTW, I’m been having trouble keeping my toenails trimmed for a while, and finally decided that it’s worth the money to go in for the occasional pedicure (in fact, I’m about due for another now). Besides, it feels so good to be pampered!
I’ll give it from a doctor’s viewpoint. I go over many basic questions on the first visit and when I do a complete physical. There are also questions that I ask with a Medicare wellness check. This includes asking if a patient feels safe at home as well as about guns in the home. I follow up by asking how they are stored and if a patient responds “I keep them loaded and ready for use” I make sure that they are aware of the basic rules of gun safety. I also ask if they wear their seatbelts, if they have smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors in their homes and if they wear sunscreen daily. I tell them it’s my job to make sure that they know about all of the simple things that can keep them healthy. I also ask older people about stairs and throw rugs in their homes since these are fall risks.
The biggest pushback I get is on the gun question. If they ask “Why do you need to know that?” I tell them that guns in the home are a health risk, that I don’t need to write down an answer and I just want to make sure that they are aware of gun safety. I also get pushback on the carbon monoxide detectors because people are convinced they only need them if they have gas heating. The one question I often leave until a later date is sexual orientation because that is something that people are less comfortable with initially. However, if I do a full physical I will ask and I also ask about preferred pronouns.
You would be surprised at all the relevant information you will not know unless you ask.
My OP has been answered and my perspective is changed a bit. I have severe hearing loss and even with my hearing aid turned up to eleven I still have to work hard to understand speech.
So, what is a “whisper test”? I’d likely totally miss that a doctor was whispering, especially if their face was blocked or they were facing away from me. But if I caught them whispering I’d be offended.
The idea of the whisper test is to see if they need a referral. You say a simple command while out of direct sight to test the hearing in a setting like an ER where there is little fancy equipment for that. It may offend you, but should be prefaced with what you are doing.
I assume that everyone knows that when the doctor asks you “Do you have guns in the home?” and you respond with “That’s none of your business.” or “I’m not going to answer that question.” then the doctor knows that you do have guns in your home because is you didn’t you would have simply responded with “No.”
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routine question about safety, suicide risk, other injury risk.
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A chance to find out if someone is in an abusive situation.
A couple years back, my son had some stomach crud which caused his food to vacate the premises. He took a nap, and when he woke up, he had chest pains. Almost certainly due to strained muscles, but the nurse on the help line told him to go to the ER anyway just in case.
I will tell you this: even if you’re 23, when you go to the checkin desk and say “chest pain” they whisk you right on back. He’d already had an EKG by the time I finished doing the paperwork.
When i went back to sit with him wile they were checking his labs, at one point a doctor or nurse asked that very “do you feel safe” question. I stepped out of the room so he could answer honestly.
As I left in my own car, not one with a flashing light on the top of it, I presume he said he was not in danger at home…
Considering that your cooking sent him to the ER, it was pretty nice of him not to implicate you. 
Heh. I would push back on the sunscreen question. I’m dubious the stuff is safe to use every day, i suspect it’s routine use also contributes to ubiquitous low levels of vitamin D, and there are lots of other ways to avoid sunburn. I have very pale skin, and haven’t been burned since i was 20. I will use sun screen of I’m going to the beach, or someplace else where i can’t find shade and can’t wear long sleeves and a hat. But that’s a handful of days a year.
You must of thought I was responding to you, but I was merely speaking of my own experience. I get impatient and am short with people because, can’t they see my issue? but in fact, I need reminding to be patient. I shared this because I thought others might be interested in my experience. Then again, maybe not. Sorry for the confusion.
No problem, no worries here. If I misunderstood, I owe you an apology.
I went with my wife to a doctor. She was sitting at a distance as I took care of business. When I went back I was asked the “do you feel safe at home” question.
When this was over, my wife talked about the person who took me back (and asked the question). About 15 years ago (before my time) they were involved in a situation with a man. The lady at the doctor’s office had called my wife-to-be at home and threatened her.
If I had known that beforehand I might have answered differently - “I feel safe unless you start calling again”.
Well, if the kid DID have diabetes, chances are (s)he would have been LOSING weight - you aren’t able to use the carbs in your diet, so you start burning muscle and fat. That’s what happened with a friend’s child who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at about age 11. She’d been feeling under the weather for a week or so, she got very sick just as they got home from vacation, they took her to the doctor - and an hour later were in the ER because her blood sugar was through the roof. She’d lost something like 15-20 pounds over the course of the summer.
Type 1 diabetes is simply NOT linked to obesity the way type 2 is.
Whether routine urine testing is appropriate, I can’t say - my kids were never asked for it, and I think this isn’t something that “simmers” for months before going critical, but I could be wrong on that.
I’ve been with a female family member at the doctor and they asked her if she feels safe at home, but I was in the room. I’m not sure the staff understands why they are asking that question, the whole point is the patient should be asked that privately. 
I wouldn’t at all appreciate doctors asking me if I have guns in the house. None of their business. I don’t fear guns because I understand them, but I do fear doctors/hospitals.
Yeah, as it turned out it was a routine screen that office started doing at all their well child checks. But if I had any concerns about unexplained weight loss , fatigue, frequent urination / accidents etc etc you bet id be in the docs office to find out what’s going on and would absolutely expect bloodwork, urinalysis etc etc.
Scoliosis screening was something they never thought to do until I brought it up with a nurse who seemed startled and then had to go ask what that entails.
And for the next parent who knows exactly zero of the stuff you just mentioned? Who but the clinic pulling a urine sample will ever know the kid’s on the road to a critical blood sugar emergency?
It’s easy to forget just how friggin’ clueless our fellow citizens are. The questions are aimed at the WAG 80%th percentile oblivious ill-educated stupid person. IOW everybody in the waiting room who’s not you or me.
- since guns are a health & safety risk it is their business.
- understanding guns doesn’t keep you from being injured by one, as far as I know.
So I find your pointlessly pugnacious attitude pretty irrational.
A key difference between guns and doctors is that guns are supposed to hurt or kill you, that is the only reason they exist. Doctors are the exact opposite. This is regardless of your emotions or thoughts about them.
- So are swimming pools, stairs, people, vehicles, and a hundred other things. Guns are just a big scary thing that some people chomp at the bit to ban.
- If you own or handle a gun then understanding them will absolutely make you safer, and it’s ignorant and irresponsible to own a gun and not understand it. Even in the extremely unlikely event that you find yourself on the wrong end of a gun, understanding them could be helpful, knowing whether the safety is on, whether it’s cocked and ready to fire, how many rounds it typically holds, how long it takes to reload, and so on.
Even if doctors/hospitals aren’t supposed to kill people, they do, and in much greater numbers than most other things. If a hospital kills me whether it was intentional or not doesn’t seem that important, and they want to grill us about one particular inanimate object that’s none of their business? I don’t think so.
There are many just and rational ways to destroy your arguments, but I believe that not only would that be a thread hijack (although this thread is kind of designed for hijacking), but you would remain tenaciously unconvinced, like all the other gunhuggers, and the waste of spirit on my part would depress me.
Prejudicial pejoratives like “gunhuggers” are getting less and less popular as more citizens believe that police are not always their friends and that everyone should have the option of responsibly exercising their Constitutional right of self defense. Gun control has historically been a racist measure used against minorities.
You do you, eh?