Health Care Leaders Outline Bold Vision for Future Gun Violence Prevention Efforts

On the eve of National Gun Violence Awareness Day, Northwell Health committed to expanding its efforts to tackle firearm injury and mortality during a White House meeting today that included representatives from the National Health Care CEO Council on Gun Violence Prevention & Safety and other health care leaders from across the country.

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Northwell President & CEO Michael Dowling speaks at White House summit Thursday on how health systems and hospitals are helping to curb gun violence. (Photo: Business Wire)

The meeting, hosted by the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, brought together more than 80 health care executives who continue to invest in gun safety public health awareness efforts, hospital-based violence intervention programs, and other strategies to address this public health crisis.

“I applaud the White House for its historic commitments to gun violence prevention and welcome its continued support in providing funding and other assistance that will further help hospitals, health systems and clinicians to become part of the solution in mitigating street violence, suicide and unintentional shootings,” said Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health, who initiated the creation of the CEO Council on Gun Violence Prevention & Safety. “As caregivers on the front lines of keeping their patients and communities safe, health care providers have a unique responsibility to do everything possible to combat the nation’s gun violence epidemic the same way we’ve met the challenges of previous public health crises.”

“An important takeaway from today’s meeting is the need to sharpen our focus on mental health. Suicides continue to account for the majority of US gun deaths, increasing every year since 2019 to more than 24,000 last year,” said another CEO Council member, Rob Allen, president & CEO of Intermountain Health, headquartered in Utah, where suicide is the leading cause of preventable death. “The responsibility to reverse this heartbreaking trend rests with all of us, which is why Intermountain instituted a suicide prevention care process model that guides our efforts to assess and treat patients with suicidal thoughts, feelings or behaviors.”

The CEO Council, which now includes 54 members from some of the nation’s largest health systems and children’s hospitals, was formed in late 2022 to organize and spur action on gun violence prevention within the health care sector, recognizing the influential role of health care executives within their communities. The CEO Council is already advancing a comprehensive, holistic public health approach to gun violence prevention, applying three main strategies that the Council is already pursuing:

• Enhancing public awareness around critical gun safety issues such as safe storage of firearms and extreme-risk protection orders, both nationally and within their communities. Members of the CEO Council have made an initial donation of $10 million toward a $40 million fundraising goal over the next two years to support a national gun violence prevention campaign in collaboration with the Ad Council.

• Pursuing a wide range of evidence-based solutions, including implementing and expanding hospital-based violence intervention programs, partnering with community-based violence intervention organizations, implementing firearm injury risk screening protocols, and pursuing research to identify risk factors. These efforts are supported in part by federal investments included in the American Rescue Plan Act and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

• Working with medical records and tech companies, health information exchanges, the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and others to improve and standardize the collection of firearm injury data within hospitals and health systems treating gunshot victims, which will help policymakers and lawmakers to monitor trends and better understand the scope of gun violence.

In addition to the work of the CEO Council, Northwell’s Center for Gun Violence Prevention, established by Mr. Dowling in 2020, initiated a national, grassroots initiative in 2021 called the Gun Violence Prevention Learning Collaborative for Hospitals and Health Systems, which has convened more than 600 health care professionals from 38 states to share best practices. Based on lessons learned through virtual sessions during the initiative’s first phase, 40 percent of members have started or expanded evidence-based firearm injury prevention strategies within their own organizations, demonstrating the impact of this type of sustained dialogue. Northwell is also pursuing a first-of-its-kind universal screening program to identify patients at risk of gun violence; and has organized five gun violence prevention forums, bringing together leaders from across the country to spark cross-industry collaboration around prevention and safety.

Gun violence remains a pressing public health crisis facing communities across America. Since the passage of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act—the first bill in three decades to address gun violence—firearm deaths declined in 2023, but still claimed the lives of more than 43,000 Americans and injured more than 36,000. And for the third consecutive year, firearms are the leading cause of death of American children and adolescents ages 1-19.

About Northwell Health

Northwell Health is New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer, with 21 hospitals, about 900 outpatient facilities and more than 12,000 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 85,000 employees – 18,900 nurses and 4,900 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners – are working to change health care for the better. We’re making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We're training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu and follow us @NorthwellHealth on Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedI

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