Dive Medicals

[Wibble]

I'll wager there are more folks keeling over who should have known better, or did know better, than there are for no apparent reason.

And an awful lot more exaggerating their skills and failing, likely fatally.

 

[BlueWater66#]

Saying something over and over does not make it more true.
Phrasing an assertion as a question does not make it more acceptable.
Using hyperbole to buttress a weak point is not compelling.

With due respect to your Master Instructor rating and 2500+ dives:
What point do I make that you call 'weak'?
What assertion do I make that you call 'hyperbole'?
I made an assertion and a supporting argument... is that what you call "saying something over and over"?
I guess my counterpoint would be 'Saying it with a few words, like your "blame it on the insurance companies", "does not make it more true"'.
Phrasing an assertion as a question is meant to invoke further discussion within this forum.
My local dive shop doesn't accept only the signed page (and the shop owner has been in the business for 30 years).

 

[scubadada]

...My local dive shop doesn't accept only the signed page...

Personally, I would seek out an alternative scuba operator for any activity requiring medical clearance. I have absolutely no interest in having my personal medical information held in a potentially insecure environment.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

My local dive shop doesn't accept only the signed page (and the shop owner has been in the business for 30 years).

Pages 1 & 2 are none of their business and I’d tell them that. Page 3 is all they need.

 

[dmaziuk]

Pages 1 & 2 are none of their business and I’d tell them that. Page 3 is all they need.

Not if you answer "no" to all the questions.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Not if you answer "no" to all the questions.

Of course. But in that case, you don’t need a doctor sign off. The context of the most recent part of this thread was a doctor sign off on the medical form. If you have any yes answers and therefore need to get a physician sign off, page 3 is all that is relevant. Your physician has already reviewed pages 1 and 2 and has cleared you for diving. That’s all that the dive shop or dive op needs to see in that case.

 

[scubadada]

Not if you answer "no" to all the questions.

Many of us are not close to answering no to all the questions on page 1 and 2. I will answer all the questions honestly and get sign off on page 3. I don't expect to do any more training in my dive career, perhaps this is a moot point.

 

[dmaziuk]

Of course. But in that case, you don’t need a doctor sign off. The context of the most recent part of this thread was a doctor sign off on the medical form.

And if you don't need the doctor's sign-off, the op will be keeping your medical information on file, potentially breaking a couple of laws in the process.

Which makes the questionnaire effectively useless: even if all your answers are really "no", and you care who you give your private medical info to, you still have to give them page 3 instead. Anyone with half a brain would just ditch the questionnaire and require the doctor's writ, but this is the "dive industry" we're talking about.

 

[tursiops]

Not if you answer "no" to all the questions.

Of course. But in that case, you don’t need a doctor sign off. The context of the most recent part of this thread was a doctor sign off on the medical form. If you have any yes answers and therefore need to get a physician sign off, page 3 is all that is relevant. Your physician has already reviewed pages 1 and 2 and has cleared you for diving. That’s all that the dive shop or dive op needs to see in that case.

And if you don't need the doctor's sign-off, the op will be keeping your medical information on file, potentially breaking a couple of laws in the process.

Which makes the questionnaire effectively useless: even if all your answers are really "no", and you care who you give your private medical info to, you still have to give them page 3 instead. Anyone with half a brain would just ditch the questionnaire and require the doctor's writ, but this is the "dive industry" we're talking about.

It is perfectly OK to provide a signed page 3 EVEN IF ALL THE PREVIOUS ANSWERS ARE NO.
There is no need to disclose your answers on pages 1 and 2.
Getting page 3 singed is a simple matter at your annual physical.
You DO get an annual physical, don't you? As a diver, you should.....

 

[kinoons]

You DO get an annual physical, don't you? As a diver, you should.....

Not necessarily. There is a compelling argument that for the average healthy individual there is no benefit to an annual exam, and possibly some danger.

“But what are the true benefits of this practice? Careful reviews of several large studies have shown that these annual visits don't make any difference in health outcomes. In other words, being seen by your doctor once a year won't necessarily keep you from getting sick, or even help you live longer. And some of the components of an annual visit may actually cause harm. For example, lab tests and exams that are ordered for healthy patients (as opposed to people with symptoms or known illnesses) are statistically more likely to be "false positives" — that is, when test results suggest a problem that doesn't exist. Even if these inaccurate findings affect only a tiny percentage of the more than 200 million adults who would undergo such exams, the monetary, practical, and emotional costs are huge.”

A checkup for the checkup: Do you really need a yearly physical? - Harvard Health

...

www.health.harvard.edu

This discussion began in 2015. I’ll agree that this study does not have a subgroup analysis for divers in specific, but I sure would like to see the evidence that the diving community as a whole is better off with routine physical exams for divers without any concerns about their health.