Turning 53 soon. In the mid '60s our family doctor–the old style general practitioner who delivered me when I was born–made a house call one night when my brother was ill.
Back in those days when most households had just one family car and mothers were home with kids and no transportation, we also got house calls from the milk man, the bread man, the insurance man, the Fuller Brush man. . .
My current doctor in NJ makes house calls. It’s one of the many cool things about him. It’s noted on his office door with his office hours. We haven’t needed him to come over yet, but it’s nice to know that he will if we need him.
When I was growing up, my mom worked in a medical lab. Her boss was our family’s primary care person, and a family friend as well. I remember him looking at my sprained ankle after a Thanksgiving Day football game.
Yes, it’s common, although in the movie, the doctor belongs to a well known for-profit association specifically specialized in house calls (he probably doesn’t do anything else).
But for a more common example, I see two doctors (twin brothers, in fact) sharing a cabinet. One of them does house calls during the late morning (while the other receive patients in the cabinet) and they reverse roles in the late evening. I wouldn’t know how many patients they visit on average daily, but quite obviously not that many since they don’t seem to dedicate much time to it.
It’s much more of a constraint for doctors in rural areas. They tend to have more elderly patients, obviously distances are much larger, and finally they have to cover nights, sundays and holydays (there’s a mandatory “watch” system, with one local doctor “on duty” on a rotational basis). In a city like Paris, people needing a doctor on, say, a saturday night, would just call “SOS-médecin” (the asociation specialized in home calls mentionned above) or “Paris Urgence Medicales” (which replace the “watch system”, and works essentially in the same way).
I’ve been raised by my grand-mother in a very small rural village, and during this time, I only once saw the inside of a doctor’s cabinet. All other times, either for me or for my grandmother, it was home calls (no car available).
During my adult life (I’m 45) in Paris and its subburbs, I only used home calls three times. Once when I caught the flu twenty years ago or so and was barely able to leave my bed, once some years ago for a cardiac rythm issue late in the evening, that, after telephonic assesment, didn’t seem to require an emergengy response but nevertheless a check and electrocardiogram, and finally …one last week-end because I had caught chickenpox and read on the internet that currently adults getting it could be prescribed antiviral drugs, but that the treatment had to begin within 48 hours after the first symptoms, so I didn’t want to wait until monday (plus I had a high fever). He didn’t prescribe me any antiviral (nor, in fact much of anything else), so it turned out to be pointless.
My understanding is that in towns and cities, home calls by regular doctors are mostly done for elderly patients or people with debilitating but mild conditions who can’t visit easily their doctor. Most medical issues would either allow the patient to go to his doctor’s cabinet or would require an emergency response.
Has anybody ever known a doctor who made house calls?
Yes. We called him “Dad”.
Unfortunately, if you live to be old enough to require a nursing home, you will have a doctor come and visit you there, because you are too sick to get to the doctor. If you need a doctor that bad, call 911 and get to a hospital because that’s where the equipment is, that doctors’ need to use. Otherwise, you will have to drag your bones out to the doctors office. This isn’t the 1950’s anymore.
My doctor in the Czech Republic makes house calls.
Yeah, my mom’s doctor does. Actually, he doesn’t have an office, but rather a full practice of homebound pts. Second one in the county, they’re both doing a booming business.
I actually received a house call once, a looong time ago. When I was a little kid, I used to get horrible ear infections, and ONCE (around 1967, I’d guess), a doctor in Astoria (Queens), New York made a house call to look at me.
No one in my family has gotten a house call since.
Along with the visiting doctor my mother in law had, there were also visiting lab and testing services. She had an EKG, an ultrasound, Xrays, labwork and more done in her home. Even IV medications such as antibiotics, chemotherapy, and pain medications can be given to people in their homes if need be. There are quite a few medical testing procedures that can be done in-home by someone qualified. Even the nursing homes use ‘visiting’ lab and X-ray services - they don’t keep that stuff on-site. The same services can visit private homes.
Hi… I was born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, 3455 12th street but we left when I was 8 years old. I was born in Brookyn when the Dodgers were there…for a little while, anyway.
Well let me know when you can get a CT scan or MRI at home, okay?
In 1998 I worked at a very upscale hotel in Chicago and we had an affiliation with a clinic and the doctor would make a “house call” to the guest in the hotel. The rate was $300 for the call plus “extras” whatever those were. (But the room rates started out at $300 a night in this hotel, so I guess that isn’t that bad to those people) 
You’re right, some types of things DO need to be done in a professional setting. However, much CAN be done at home, and in the case of someone old and confused and with chronic pain and poor mobility it’s certainly kinder to keep them in the home they don’t want to leave if at all possible. She had requested previously she didn’t want any MRIs or extensive testing as her health was poor to start and she had made decisions (pre-dementia) about how much care and testing she wanted.
I love my mother in law dearly and as a medical professional I was convinced an MRI or CT would benefit her health in some way, I’d see she got one. There are non-ambulance transport services that specialize in taking the elderly or wheelchair or bedbound to appointments and testing, at a hospital or outpatient testing center.
It is still part of a GP’s regular duties in Spain. The end of a Social-Security-employed GP’s day is dedicated to house calls, if there’s any; these may, just as in-office calls, have been appointed in advance or stem from calls during the same day. In general, if you call after 9am you won’t get an appointment with the GP or pediatrician for the same day - except if it’s for a homebound patient, in which case either you get a housecall from the doctor or a couple of nice people with an ambulance (this will depend on things like the time of day and the doctor’s workload).
There is also a system, implanted in recent years in Navarra (we tend to act as a “pilot” for new social programs, due to our small size and to political and economical considerations), called “hospital extension”. Long-term patients get sent home and their home set up as “hospital room [the house’s address]”; medical personnel go to the house as part of rounds (doctors, nurses, aides, therapists…). If the family didn’t already own a hospital bed, one is provided. They also set up any monitors, oxygen, and any other portable equipment, taking the patient to “the real hospital” only when there’s something he needs which can’t be brought to the house. The idea is: lower hospital-caused illness; lower stress for the family; no such thing as a wife who only leaves her husband’s room to use the bathroom… in general, it’s been found to work well, as shown by the adoption of the programs in other regions.
We got housecalls several times when we were little; when Mom was bedridden (c. 1984 for over a year), the doctor would come over. There was also a local “nurse practitioner” who did home visits as part of his private practice (hours for getting an injection from one via SS were 8am-1am; his practice covered noons, afternoons and homes). I remember the general look of :o around my 6th grade class when we got a new classmate who happened to be his daughter. Her dad had stuck needles on the bum of pretty much each and every one of us; it was one of those things where you know you shouldn’t be embarrased but, uh, ehrm… yeah, you are. 11 year olds sure blush easy!
When I was a kid in the 1960s my doctor made a house call for me when I hurt my leg and couldn’t get in to the office. It’s the only time I can recall it, though.
The last time I can remember was when I had the chicken pox in 1980 (I was 10). Our old family doctor came and said Yup, that’s chicken pox. I recommend calomine lotion, lemonade, and cartoons. And stock up, because her sister will get it in a week or so. (And exactly seven days later, guess who started scratching?)
There is apparently a service here that will come out, but it’s intended primarily for patients who are home-bound - handicapped or elderly people without good transportation options, mostly - who are too sick to wait until they have help to get to the normal doctor but not bad enough to call an ambulance. If they do come, you get whoever is on call that week, not your regular GP.
It was pretty common where I grew up, in the country, in the 1970s. But by about 1980 it was rare, and soon dropped off to never, probably because owning and running a car was more affordable.
Having said that, the local Doctor’s Rooms were only occupied twice a week, as he travelled around the region, and that was true up until the late 80s, and for all I know is still true today.
I have a vague memory from about 50 years ago where the poor doctor had to drag me out from under my bed to give me a shot. This would probably have been in West Texas.
Never seen one in the US, but they were still about in the 90’s Russia, and true to the point, we did use 'em.