MMS Adopts New Policies on Gun Violence, Other Matters

BOSTON — Policies on gun violence and principles of physician employment led the list of resolutions adopted as policies by physicians of the Mass. Medical Society at the recent annual meeting of the MMS House of Delegates in Boston.

Stating that the MMS “be guided by the principles of reducing the number of deaths, disabilities, and injuries attributable to guns, making gun ownership safer, and encouraging research to understand the risk factors related to gun violence and deaths,”  delegates adopted a policy on gun violence that includes several provisions.

Most notably, the policy reaffirms the right of physicians to discuss with patients gun safety and the ownership and storage of guns within the duty and privacy of obtaining a medical history, and it encourages healthcare providers to review gun safety as a routine component of preventive care. The policy also provides for the MMS to promote and support state legislative efforts to make licensing and background checks mandatory for all firearm sales and for the MMS to advocate that the American Medical Assoc. support federal efforts to do the same on a national level.

In another matter, voting on a proposal stating that a “physician’s paramount responsibility is to his or her patients” and that “patient advocacy is a fundamental element of the patient-physician relationship that should not be altered by the healthcare system or setting in which physicians practice,” MMS delegates adopted a comprehensive policy on principles for physician employment, covering seven areas: conflicts of interest, advocacy for patients and the profession, contracting, hospital staff medical relations, peer review and performance evaluations, payment agreements, and physician independence and self-governance.

Other policies adopted by the delegates include the following:

• The society updated its policy on the abuse and neglect of children by voting to continue to support initiatives to increase the knowledge of physicians, other health workers, and the public by improving education and training methods for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of child abuse.

• Delegates adopted a resolution to advocate for legislation or regulation providing a hospice benefit to all patients under state public-health plans.

• Delegates voted to establish a committee on oral health, with the intent of increasing public awareness of the relationship and importance of good oral health to good physical health.