The Gun Safety Program started with curiosity. Two pediatric trainees noticed during their rotations in the Emergency Department (ED) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia that staff were counseling families on safe firearm storage and handing out gun locks.
The trainees approached Dorothy R. Novick, MD, an attending physician at CHOP Primary Care, South Philadelphia and practice-based scholar for the Center for Violence Prevention (CVP), asking about starting a similar program in South Philadelphia. It was a great idea: delivering information in the exam room that’s proven to reduce unintentional shootings and suicides.
Novick partnered with Joel A. Fein, MD, MPH, senior advisor for advocacy and health policy in the ED and co-director of CVP. A prompt was added to patients’ electronic records to remind staff to ask about firearms during patient well visits. Discussions about guns in the home have been a regular part of patient assessments in the ED and behavioral health visits for years, but this was the start of standardized assessments for well visits at CHOP.
The Philadelphia Sheriff’s Department donated 500 free gun locks. Locks and education materials were distributed to three CHOP primary care practices, and leaders trained staff how to incorporate sensitive conversations about access to guns into general safety discussions with families. Within two months, all 500 locks were given to families.
To continue — and later expand — this successful harm-prevention initiative, program leaders rallied other groups at CHOP and in the community for funding to purchase additional locks. The goal was to offer gun locks to more families at more CHOP locations. In the past few years, the program has grown exponentially: Nearly 5,000 gun locks have been distributed since 2020.
“What makes CHOP’s program unique is the wide range of clinical care settings it encompasses — from inpatient care units to primary care practices,” Novick says. “We are working to normalize gun safety as an integral aspect of pediatric care.”
With the support of Program Manager Kimberly Sterner-Stein, MSW, MPH, Novick and Fein are now working to test and refine gun safety interventions across a variety of care settings within CHOP’s Care Network.
Adds Fein: “Our goal is to create a program that is standardized and rooted in best practices, yet flexible enough to be impactful anywhere families seek care at CHOP.” The program is eager to expand its reach but can only do so with sustainable funding provided by donors.
Watch a short video about CHOP’s efforts to prevent gun violence.
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The Gun Safety Program started with curiosity. Two pediatric trainees noticed during their rotations in the Emergency Department (ED) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia that staff were counseling families on safe firearm storage and handing out gun locks.
The trainees approached Dorothy R. Novick, MD, an attending physician at CHOP Primary Care, South Philadelphia and practice-based scholar for the Center for Violence Prevention (CVP), asking about starting a similar program in South Philadelphia. It was a great idea: delivering information in the exam room that’s proven to reduce unintentional shootings and suicides.
Novick partnered with Joel A. Fein, MD, MPH, senior advisor for advocacy and health policy in the ED and co-director of CVP. A prompt was added to patients’ electronic records to remind staff to ask about firearms during patient well visits. Discussions about guns in the home have been a regular part of patient assessments in the ED and behavioral health visits for years, but this was the start of standardized assessments for well visits at CHOP.
The Philadelphia Sheriff’s Department donated 500 free gun locks. Locks and education materials were distributed to three CHOP primary care practices, and leaders trained staff how to incorporate sensitive conversations about access to guns into general safety discussions with families. Within two months, all 500 locks were given to families.
To continue — and later expand — this successful harm-prevention initiative, program leaders rallied other groups at CHOP and in the community for funding to purchase additional locks. The goal was to offer gun locks to more families at more CHOP locations. In the past few years, the program has grown exponentially: Nearly 5,000 gun locks have been distributed since 2020.
“What makes CHOP’s program unique is the wide range of clinical care settings it encompasses — from inpatient care units to primary care practices,” Novick says. “We are working to normalize gun safety as an integral aspect of pediatric care.”
With the support of Program Manager Kimberly Sterner-Stein, MSW, MPH, Novick and Fein are now working to test and refine gun safety interventions across a variety of care settings within CHOP’s Care Network.
Adds Fein: “Our goal is to create a program that is standardized and rooted in best practices, yet flexible enough to be impactful anywhere families seek care at CHOP.” The program is eager to expand its reach but can only do so with sustainable funding provided by donors.
Watch a short video about CHOP’s efforts to prevent gun violence.
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