Reinventing the House Call
When I was a kid growing up in the 70’s (I was born in the summer of 69’) I can remember my parents and those of my cousins telling stories of when they were ill the doctor would stop by the house and provide services for cash… or a chicken… or some other home produced product like pies or jams. My family (on my mother’s side) lived in rural southeastern Ohio…many of them still do. When a family member became ill, they couldn’t always make it in to town to see their physician, sometimes he had to come to them. Many of us know this bygone practice of a doctor coming to the home of the patient to provide services to be simply called the “house call”. A great example of this practice can be seen in the classic movie, Doc Hollywood (1991) starring Michael J Fox & Julie Warner. Now, I can’t say with certainty that this practice has completely vanished from our modern landscape but it has been a very long time since I’ve heard anyone mutter that phrase which was so common at one point in our past. What I have been hearing (and reading) about with greater regularity these days is something called Telemedicine…
What is telemedicine you ask? According to the ATA (American Telemedicine Association) the definition of telemedicine is as follows, “…telemedicine is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status. Telemedicine includes a growing variety of applications and services using two-way video, email, smart phones, wireless tools and other forms of telecommunications technology.” Cool! What the heck does that really mean to me? Well, in short, telemedicine allows patients who are restricted by travel capabilities or by distance to be able to communicate with their health care provider via internet or cell phone. If you and your family doctor reside in Franklin County say between Brookville and Batesville and the specialist you see is at Riley Hospital in Indianapolis…you, your doctor and your specialist can all communicate in real time via whatever electronic devise will work for all the parties. Health information can easily, quickly and safely be distributed so everyone is on the same page at the same time. This technology allows the physician to come back in the house so to speak, reinventing the house call in order to better serve those who need it.
There are those who think this is not the best way to treat patients and that it poses some privacy and security problems…that very well may be. It could be that the information that is put out there may fall into the wrong hands and that is something to take a closer look at…however, I feel (my personal thoughts) that the idea is one that who’s time has come and as computing technology and smart phone technology continue to improve, why not use these tools to better the lives of our patients. After all, is that not the ultimate goal of all of us who serve some function in the healthcare industry, to make the lives of those around us better? Healthcare at home via telemedicine and the help of a home healthcare nurse is the direction more and more patients who need it will be heading. It will be interesting to see the data come in over the next several years. As always, feel free to email me with any further thoughts or comments.
Have a great weekend everyone, I look forward to posting again soon and remember, take care of each other, we’re all in this together.
Thanks for reading,
Wm Reid
Best Home Care Services
325 N Eastern Ave
Connersville, IN 47331
765-827-9833
besthomecareservices@comcast.net