Photo: Stoker StudiosHome visits by primary care doctors had all but vanished by the 1990′s, but the changing economics of health care and advancing technology are bringing back the house call.
Elderly, homebound patients were among the first to benefit from the house call resurgence, but now a determined, web-savvy Brooklyn doctor is bringing home visits to the under-40 set with his new service, HelloHealth.
Dr. Jay Parkinson runs an interesting blog, will be your Facebook friend, and is available to his patients 24/7 via e-mail, IM, and video chat.
Parkinson says that his model lets him develop better relationships with his patients and provide more personalized care. And he can provide all of these services at a lower cost, since he doesn’t have to pay the overhead costs associated with running a traditional doctor’s office.
Maybe getting doctors out of hospitals and into their patients’ living rooms will help them follow Julie Salamon‘s advice to be nicer.
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So this begs the question: what services, exactly, does a doctor’s office provide that a house call cannot?
this is absolutely progressive, in terms of our health care reform- we desperately need health care professionals to make home visits in order to foster family health which is preventative (treat the parents, and foster prevention in the children)- kudos to Parkinson!
ps- i got this pain in my shoulder, doc- could u stop by and see it?- my address is 1313 Mockingbird lane…
Jay has an interesting concept and I hope it is of benefit to his patients. However as Jay knows, talking with a patient, expecially during the initial encounter for a particular problem, doesn’t supplant a clinical exam. There may be risks by not physically examining a patient.
The comment: “Maybe getting doctors out of hospitals and into their patients’ living rooms will help them follow Julie Salamon’s advice to be nicer.” has me perplexed. Sure, docs can and do behave poorly however, the ones willing to visit a patient’s living room would probably be the “nice” ones anyway, not the greedy, know-it-all arrogant ones.
Guaranteed sterility is a big benefit. I’d rather have blood taken in a doctor’s office than on my kitchen table.
Another benefit is the proximity of medical testing equipment for more serous visits.
In general, I feel that most ailments that currently require a doctor’s office visit can be easily taken care of with a house call. Please feel free to contact me for a more in-depth study of this issue!
Here is a bit of missing economics from the post:
1) How much does it cost the patient to receive doctor in his home?
2) Is the doctor paid by salary, capitation fee of item of service? who determines his fees?
3) Can the doctor make more money by seeing 40 patients in his office or 4-5 at home on an average day?
4) Can the doctor really dispense with the traditional office arrangement – what about record keeping, billing etc.
5) What is the demand for his services? How many patients are on his books? Can he satisfy all of them in a timely fashion?
Just a few questions of many…
This is a great idea. Here’s why….
Many folks will happily pay, say, $20, just to have the doctor E-MAIL them regarding a matter. That is, the patient often just wants some assurance.
If I have a cold that is dragging on and on, and the cough just isn’t clearing up, I would LOVE for a doctor to say, “Hey, some colds are just a bit stubborn; give it three more days, and if it’s not cleared up, let me know and I’ll drop by and do another exam.”
Not only is it EASIER to simply reply via e-mail than to see people in the office, but there are other advantages…
1) You can do it from home…the golf course…the beach, etc.
2) When a lot of sick people are in the waiting room, surely there is a much greater risk for the spread of sickness.
3) Many patients would consider it a great advantage to NOT have to leave home and sit around waiting to get called back to examining room.
4) Responding via e-mail serves as a form of triage: What you can’t handle via e-mail gets escalated.
Just my thoughts. I love it!
I wonder how this affects his malpractice insurance. I would think it would be much riskier and therefore more expensive, unless the membership required also includes some waiver of certain liabilities or something.