Maggie’s Doctors VS Gun Owners

[dagwood]

I know some of you guys are Doctors and in the medical field, but also own guns, so it puts you on the good side of this.
This may be a repost, but here it is anyway.

Doctors vs. Gun owners
Doctors
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.

(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians
per year are 120,000.
(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.

Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of
Health and Human Services.

Now think about this:
Gun Owners

(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000.
(Yes, that's 80 million)
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths
per year, all age groups, is
1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths
per gun owner is
.000188.

Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of
Health and Human Services.

So, statistically, doctors are approximately
9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

Remember, 'Guns don't kill people, doctors do..'

FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT
ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.
Please alert your friends
to this alarming threat.

We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!
Out of concern for the public at large,
I withheld the statistics on Lawyers
for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention!

 

[Guest]

Re: Doctors VS Gun Owners

Thanks for posting it in Maggie's and not Intel.
Funny stuff.

 

[beemerman]

Re: Doctors VS Gun Owners

That's classic. I'm going to use this one. Thanks.

 

[cavscout1983]

Re: Doctors VS Gun Owners

I realize this is a joke. That being said: anyone have links to actual studies regarding this?

I noticed they said "accidental" gun related deaths, what about the purposeful ones? I am guessing guns are still statistically safer than doctors.

 

[Bowman]

Re: Doctors VS Gun Owners

I don't think Obama-Care is going to help those physician numbers either.

 

[crumpmd]

Re: Doctors VS Gun Owners

Safer to die at home than see a doctor.

 

[UKDslayer]

Re: Doctors VS Gun Owners

Cavscout - I wrote a very long reply here once upon a time to that. That paper is about 8-10 years old. The number of medical errors is approximately correct, it was a real study, however it pertained all "medical errors", not medical errors caused by doctors alone. For example in a hospital a doctor writes an order for a medicine for an inpatient, a unit secretary enters it into a computer, a pharmacy tech prints it, another one is to check it for allergies and contraindications with current medications, a pharmacist mixes it/preps it, another tech delivers it to the floor, another nurse logs it in, a nurse or aide administers it. Doctors make errors, but that study was looking at "all" medical errors - which obviously can happen at many different levels. After that study a bunch of "patient safety" committees popped up, which supposedly has helped. Rules have been implemented like limiting the number of hours residents can work, most major hospitals have "M&M" conferences (morbiditiy & mortality) conferences in which errors are discussed in the context of how to avoid them in the future, etc. By far, the number one reversible cause of hospital mortality is hospital-acquired infections (or "iatrogenic" infections), and example of how hospitals are trying to decrease that is having alcohol hand prep in each patients room, forcing female staff to keep fingernails short, and encouraging patients to "tattle-tail" on any staff at any level that doesn't wash hands & stethoscopes between patients, use gloves to change dressings, etc. Most insurance companies now will not cover medical expenses of a hospital-acquired infection.