What Should You Keep In Your Doctor's Bag for A House Call?
First, get a cool doctor’s bag, like this one in the image from Gustin!
Fill it with cotton swabs, bandages, alcohol wipes, blood pressure cuff, thermometer, pulse oximeter, stethoscope, nitrile gloves, diagnostic set (otoscope at least).
Sometimes my patients need a joint injection, so I'll pre-fill a syringe with lidocaine and triamcinolone and inject the knee or shoulder as needed.
Sometimes my patients will need a blood draw, so I'll pack a butterfly needle and the tiger-top tube and lavendar tube. I'll do this last, so I can head to the office and spin the SST/serum separator tube/tiger-top tube and have Quest pick this up.
Why Are House Calls Important?
I make house calls because I believe that healthcare should be affordable and accessible. 🥼
That accessibility piece can be out of reach for some elderly and disabled patients who cannot leave their home. This is especially true in Detroit, where nearly one third of Detroiters lack access to reliable transportation. 🚗
Studies on the effects of house calls on healthcare outcomes show fewer hospitalizations 🏥, fewer emergency room visits, decrease in re-admissions (going back to the hospital shortly after discharge), and these house 🏠 calls save patients money 💵.
That’s why it’s important for me to offer this vital service. This pic was taken last week in the Five Points neighborhood. I’m proud of this work and of how we’re able to lower the cost of care and make excellent health care available to more people.
The vast majority of our visits take place in our offices - we have two locations where we take care of people face to face and by using virtual visits. But, house calls can be used at any time to help our patients who are shut in, who have mobility issues, or who have concerns where they’d prefer not to leave their homes.
From the American Academy of Family Physicians:
House calls, also referred to as home visits, are increasing in the United States. Approximately 40% of patient visits in the 1930s were house calls. By 1996, this decreased to 0.5% because insurance reimbursements for house calls decreased. The pendulum in the United States is swinging again to house calls because of the need to develop care models for the growing aging population.
More information from the American Academy of Family Physicians on the benefits of house calls:
The Independence at Home program demonstrated a 23% reduction in hospitalizations, a 27% decrease in 30-day readmissions, and a cost savings of $111 per beneficiary per month, which is a $70 million savings over three years. Similarly, a large systematic review (N = 46,154; nine studies) evaluating home-based primary care outcomes for homebound older adults reported fewer hospitalizations, hospital bed days of care, emergency department visits, long-term care admissions, and long-term bed days of care.
Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day,
-Dr. Paul Thomas
HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING AN DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?
If you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our book and our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog, in our book, and in our courses.
The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.
Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!
-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC