In 2000, a friend of mine in Canada had his holistic pediatrician come to his house to see his ill baby daughter. I got the impression at the time that it wasn’t entirely common.
I remember my pediatrician making house calls in the late 1950s.
There is a doctor in my neighborhood who does housecalls - lots of people call him for things like ear infections or strep throat. Never called him myself, though.
When our last baby was born (in 2010), our pediatrician offered to come by the house and look in on the baby on a Saturday (his jaundice had come on rapidly). We only live a few blocks away from the pediatric office, and he was going in on the weekend to do paperwork, but even so - we couldn’t believe it! In the end, it was decided (based on blood work) that we could wait until office hours on Sunday. My husband and I absolutely love this guy.
My aunt lives in Cleveland and a podiatrist comes to her house from time to time.
My podiatrist, out here in the suburbs, regularly does “rounds” at a senior village type place.
Never had a house call myself.
I once had a doctor who would go to home births. No other housecalls, though.
When I got chicken pox in my 20s and had to walk to a doctor’s office I remember desperately wishing doctors still made housecalls in the U.S.
Does the French national health care program pay for visits from for-profits or is paid for by the patient?
Also, is ‘cabinet’ in this case synonymous with examining room?
I remember doctor visits in the early 60’s.
Our GP (huisarts, family practitioner) commonly sees people walking in the first hour in the morning, and the hours after that, by appointment. But most GP’s have several afternoon hours in the week set apart for housecalls, for people too sick to come in.
So yes, housecalls are common here. Of course, this is the Netherlands, with teeny tiny distances and medical care that is organized differently then in the US.
When I was a kid(back in the 50s/sixties.) we had house calls but never heard of them since.
My pediatrician did. Philly. 1962-1970. Quite a handful of times. Good guy.
I remember our family doctor coming over once or twice when I was really little to do a house call for my grandmother who IIRC had a severely broken leg at the time. His office was in his house and he lived 1 block away.
This would have been the early 80s.
We brought my stroke surviving, bed ridden, mother in law to our house so we could be her caregivers. It was a 6 yr journey.
During those years her doctor always came to the house. Flu shots, check ups, issues.
As she came to the end of her journey, (it took almost 10 wks for her to pass), her doctor was here often, changing meds, checking on her.
And when she passed, he came to our home and signed the paperwork. He is an awesome doctor. All of this happened, not in some distant past, she passed 3 yrs ago.
Of course, I’m in Canada where we have the fearful ‘socialized’ medicine, so we never paid for the service or anything, it was all covered, as were all of her very expensive meds, (6 yrs worth), her home care aids, (2hrs everyday), and her respite care stays.
When I see such things on tv it doesn’t even give me pause. Of course, if she was able, she’d have been expected to go to the doctor, whatever her age or condition.
My uncle did house calls for a concierge-based service in Palm Beach for several years and stopped last year. It was cost effective because the company he worked for would sort them by condo building. Many days he was only in one or two buildings.
My grandfather was a doctor, first in Lahore, and then, after the Partition, in Panipat, and he certainly made housecalls. And I am pretty sure doctors will still make housecalls in India if you have the money. I actually faintly remember one coming to see me when I was sick, i think, but it’s a very faint memory. I would have only been ten.
Personally I’ve never made house calls. People act weird when a pathologist shows up at their house.
Hehehe.
Home visits are available here in Scotland. I think the way it works is that each practice (which is usually a bunch of doctors operating out of the same premises) has a rota, and the visits are made after the scheduled appointments are finished.
The health care system pays for it (or rather you pay for it and are reimbursed later, as you would for an ordinary visit to your doctor). However, if the doctor deems a house call wasn’t necessary, he can add a non-reimbursable fee (again, same as a regular doctor doing a house call). Since house calls are costlier, the health care system doesn’t want people to call a doctor just because they have a runny nose and are too lazy to walk to see him.
I mentionned it was a “for profit association” 1) because the OP was assuming it was a regular doctor depicted while in fact he probably only does housecalls and 2) because it isn’t something organized by the public health system, but a private initiative.
Otherwise, it follows exactly the same rules as all doctors (well, all doctors having an agreement with the Health Care System, which is the overwhelming majority).
When I was refering to my twin doctors, no. Each has his own examining room. They just share the place, the waiting room and the secetary. I’m not sure what the correct english word is for the place where one or several doctors practice. I just thought it was “cabinet”.
It still happens in England too. It’s not for normal appointments, but for people who can’t get to the surgery for some reason, as well as for people with certain infectious diseases that mean the doctor doesn’t want them to come into the surgery. My doctor did home visits when swine flu was rife in this area.
In British English it’s either ‘surgery’ (which is confusing - it doesn’t mean surgeons operate there) or ‘practice,’ which is also confusing since the doctors should be done practising by the time they get one. I’m pretty sure American English uses practice too, as well as ‘office.’
Grandmother with Parkinson disease, died in 2001. Her doctor (our family GP) did housecalls and arrived (after she died) to pronounce her dead. Same deal with my other grandmother when she was in hospice.
Oh, and we had a doctor visit the school for school physicals. Those were done on different days in the nurse’s office. On boys’ day a male physician would show up, the girls got a female one on their days (the school nurse assited on both days). That’s the only other direct knowledge I have of a doctor practicing outside of an office or clinic or hospital.
Yes. My great uncle’s doctor came to his home, when he was diagnosed with cancer of the liver. I thought it was a really nice thing for her to do. It’s a rare thing to see that around here these days. She continued to care for him at home, until his death, a few months later.
Growing up and into adulthood, I had the same doctor that delivered my grandma, my mom, and myself. He also made house calls. He also was a veterinarian. He’d make house calls to people, as well as animals. He was a fantastic doctor, too! A wonderful, caring man. He made his own medicines, both pills, and liquids. He did this right up until he retired in 1986.
He didn’t charge much at all, just a few dollars, or so, and he’d apologize for charging what little he did.
He’s the doctor that diagnosed and set/put casts on my broken ankles, four different times, mumps, measles, ear infections, and tonsillitis. He also diagnosed my grandpa’s throat cancer back in the '40’s, and sent him to the ‘teaching hospital’ in Indianapolis, where he had to stay for an entire year, with surgeries, radium pellet treatment (Those radium pellets still made their way out of the roof of his mouth into the 80’s, by the way. When one would make its way out to where it was bothering him, he would go to this same doctor, and he would remove the offending pellet.), skin grafts, etc. He went to Indy once a week to check on him. He was absolutely amazing.
He finally retired a year before I had my daughter, or he’d have delivered her, too.