Hospitals Join Initiative to Address Gun Safety

Over 1,000 hospitals and health associations have joined Northwell Health’s initiative to encourage parents to speak openly about gun safety. The campaign aims to reduce deaths caused by guns among children by having adults talk about gun safety and access. Thirteen children die from gun-related violence in the United States every day,, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making it the leading cause of death in kids. 

Northwell Health, for the past five years, has made gun violence prevention a priority by helping educate, inform and spark change. These efforts include: 

• establishing The Gun Violence Prevention Center to develop best practices for hospitals and form a national coalition of healthcare leaders to depolarize gun safety  
• convening in 2019 its first Gun Violence Prevention Forum. The next forum aims to mobilize the collective efforts of leading executives, clinicians, researchers, and policymakers around gun violence as a public health emergency 
• forming The Gun Violence Prevention Learning Collaborative, a grassroots initiative that gives health care professionals the space to have dialogue, share best practices and take action  
• securing a $1.4 million National Institutes of Health grant to study gun violence prevention and establish and implement a first-of-its-kind protocol to universally screen those at risk of firearm injury. The ongoing research study is entitled “We Ask Everyone. Firearm Safety is a Health Issue.”   
• installing an AI-based touchless weapon detection system across our hospitals to promote and sustain a safe environment for team members, providers, patients and visitors.