Over the years, the medical establishment has quietly replaced house calls with walk-in-clinics, ER rooms, 911 calls and ambulance services.
But are all 911 calls made because of true emergencies? How many are made to seek treatment for non-lifethreatening situations that would have been resolved by house calls in prior years?
A 911 call is currently the only alternative for an ill person who has become so bedridden and debilitated they cannot make a trip away from their own home.
Sometimes a patient is so weakened, perhaps with a fever and some vomiting, that they cannot suffer to get out of bed, get dressed, walk outside to a car, enter a doctor’s office or walk-in clinic, sign in, and then sit on a chair and wait until called. How many ER resources and ambulances are committed to support such very ill patients, who have non-urgent symptoms, that could instead be treated by a doctor on a house call?
The below example for Beebe Healthcare is currently only fictional.
Fortunately, the innovative Beebe Healthcare system has taken the initiative to combine their primary care intern program with limited house call visitations. Thanks to specially equipped vans operated by professional drivers, interns, who may be accompanied by their senior medical advisers, are able to diagnose and treat many of these cases in the patients’ own homes, leaving 911 resources free to be used in lifethreatening situations.
Such visits are limited to situations where the only other alternative for the infirm bedridden patient would be to phone 911 for an ambulance visit to an emergency room. It is understood that said patient’s symptoms would not be lifethreatening, such as having heart pains or an unusually high fever.
Why house calls may grow further – according to ChatGPT, an AI site: Modern healthcare systems have discovered that home visits can:
- Reduce ER visits
- Reduce hospitalizations
- Improve outcomes for chronically ill patients
- Lower costs for insurers.
So house calls may become much more common again.
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