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House Calls Make A Comeback
If your memory can stretch back 50 years or so you might remember seeing a well dressed man carrying a black bag approach your or your neighbor's front door. No, it wasn't an IRS auditor or an insurance salesman, or even someone running for city council. It was the doctor.
If your memory can stretch back 50 years or so you might remember seeing a well dressed man carrying a black bag approach your or your neighbor’s front door. No, it wasn’t an IRS auditor or an insurance salesman, or even someone running for city council. It was the doctor.
There was a time when doctors would routinely visit patients at their homes. It seems like this convenience disappeared for good about 50 years ago as the baby boom was in full swing and physicians were swamped with patients.
Our house calls story would end abruptly right here, were it not for Family Home Care and Hospice. (FHCH) of Spokane, WA. FHCH is a home health agency serving patients in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. FHCH has recently begun offering primary care medical services in a patient’s home. The new service, appropriately named, “House Calls” provides a variety of primary care medical services including, routine check-ups, blood draws, medication monitoring, diagnosing medical conditions and prescribing medications. Following an initial visit and diagnosis, patients may also receive their on-going treatment and follow-up from their House Calls provider, or their in-home care can be coordinated with their regular physician.
Medical professionals staffing the House Calls program are Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners (ARNP). They have additional training and are specially licensed for providing medical services in the patient’s home. These skilled professionals would rather see a patient in a home environment instead of at a clinic or a hospital.
“We love this program because it allows us to spend more time with our patients,” said Carol Charles, ARNP. “When we can get to know them more closely and see how they’re living, we can many times recommend treatment options that will fit more closely with the patient’s lifestyle. This is an advantage for the patient that isn’t possible at a hospital or clinic.”
The House Calls service is perfect for bed ridden or home-bound patients or patients who have difficulty getting to the doctor’s office. However, the service is not restricted merely to the home-bound, but can be utilized by anyone in the community who would like primary care medical services to be performed in their home.
“Certainly the greatest need for the service is among the elderly,” said Alicia Bowman Primary Care Coordinator for FHCH, “but the service is not restricted that group alone. We also see a goodly number of younger patients.”
In FHCH’s primary market area, as in many communities across the country, there are no services which provide primary medical care on an in-home basis. This means that, without the House Calls service, many patients will not see a medical professional until their condition becomes serious enough that emergency treatment is needed. Even in the best cases, home-bound patients often postpone their medical care long enough that their conditions have worsened. The availability of quality in-home medical care is essential to the continued health of these patients.
While the demand for this service in the Spokane area is strong, the rapid growth of the elderly population in the US means that, services like Family Home Care’s House Calls will likely be needed in many areas of the country.
“Home health agencies already have the expertise and systems to offer these services in their areas,” explained Michael Nowling, FHCH President. “If enough home health agencies take on this service all across the country, it will represent a significant benefit to our elderly patients and will take some of the pressure off of our emergency rooms and staff.”
The largest privately owned home health agency in it’s market area, Family Home Care and Hospice has been seeing patients in the Inland Northwest for more than 40 years. Family Home Care and Hospice has been honored by Medicare as one of the top 1 percent of home health agencies in Washington State. They have also been recognized as being among the top five percent of home health agencies in the nation.