I enjoy watching House quite a bit, but it’s practically a staple for every episode that the doctors leave the hospital and go poking around the patient’s apartment to find clues as to why they’re sick. Does this practice have any basis in reality? I’ve never heard even a vague reference to this occurring.
That’s something an epidemiologist might do in investigating the source of a disease outbreak.
The only persons that have ever been sent to our house ever since our doctor retired have been nurses.
There’s a limited number of physicians who make house calls on a regular basis (just Google on the subject), but as for docs who visit a home to determine why an illness occurred, I can think of just two major categories: epidemiologists/health dept. investigators and forensic pathologists.
TV medicine and reality often co-exist to only a minor extent.
The only realistic doctor show I think I’ve ever seen is “Scrubs,” which aside from the surreal flashbacks pretty much nails doctors pat: they rush in, look at your chart, make a snap judgment, and leave.
Don’t forget “Green Wing”… well in my experience anyway.
And you learned this how? In fact, hospital-based doctors talk to the patient, talk to the family, talk to the nurses, talk to the referring physician, talk to consultants, talk to each other, look up things in books, research uncommon conditions in medical journals, and search the internet. Then they consult your chart and make a “snap” judgment. Believe it or not, scenes of doctors studying in a library, reading books or journals, or talking about signs, symptoms, lab results and pathology reports on the phone, in the office, or at lunch don’t make good television. If all your doctor does is rush in, look at your chart, make a snap judgment, and leave, maybe you need to find another doctor.