Our Take
A clinical workflow integration that turns a point-of-care moment into a prevention decision, but only if health systems choose to adopt it.
Why it matters
Firearm injury remains a leading cause of preventable death in the US, and emergency departments are where most treatment occurs. Embedding screening into the EHR removes a friction point that has historically blocked intervention at scale in hospitals.
Do this week
EHR administrators: audit your current gun violence screening gaps and request a demo of the Northwell tool from your Epic account team before Q4 budget planning so your ED can pilot it in January.
Northwell's screening tool ships in Epic's core product
Northwell Health's firearm injury risk screening tool, developed through a National Institutes of Health-funded study called "We Ask Everyone," is now integrated into Epic's electronic health record system. The integration went live in May and is available to any organization using Epic that chooses to activate it.
The tool performs three functions: it screens patients to determine firearm injury risk, distributes gun locks to those identified as at-risk, and refers patients to hospital-based violence intervention programs. It also collects data on firearm-injured patients for research purposes.
Epic and Northwell positioned this as a workflow integration designed to work within the clinician's existing encounter flow, allowing real-time identification and intervention.
The EHR is where prevention actually happens
Standalone gun violence screening tools have existed for years, but uptake has been spotty. The barrier has never been evidence (data on effectiveness exists). The barrier is workflow friction. A screening form that requires a clinician to exit the EHR, use a separate system, and manually re-enter results will not get used in a busy emergency department.
By embedding this tool directly into Epic's interface, Northwell removes that friction. A clinician seeing a patient in the ED can screen, assess risk, and dispatch a gun lock and referral without leaving the encounter context. This is the difference between a tool that sits unused and one that gets applied consistently.
The CDC has long noted that healthcare settings are the primary treatment access point for firearm injuries and that screening conducted in clinical settings can help prevent future violence and suicide. Kaiser Permanente Washington demonstrated this principle last year by adding firearm access screening to its suicide prevention workflows. Northwell's Epic integration extends that model to any health system running the same EHR platform.
The catch: adoption is opt-in. The tool exists in Epic, but health systems must choose to enable it and train staff on its use. A product feature sitting in a system is not the same as a feature being used.
How to evaluate this for your health system
If your organization runs Epic, request a walkthrough of the Northwell tool from your account team. Identify which departments (ED, primary care, behavioral health) would benefit from earlier screening. Ask Northwell for data on adoption rates at peer health systems and what training workflows work best.
The value is real only if clinicians use it. Run a small pilot in one ED before a full deployment. Track whether screened patients actually receive gun locks and referrals, not just whether the screening was documented.