Rusty Saber: Docs on Wheels proves Rusty clichés

An RRR (Regular Rusty Reader) recently ran on to something he thought might interest me, because I like it when I can say "what goes around comes around" and "everything old is new again." RRR was right, I'm interested. In case you haven't heard I hadn't until the RRR put me on it a trend is developing around the nation for doctors to make house calls. Hang on. That isn't a typo, it's the real thing. If anything will prime me to say, "everything old is new again," doctors making house calls is it.

If you remember house calls, you are either getting long in the tooth or you watch old movies. If it's the latter, you've seen doctors, who look like Hollywood's notion of doctors are supposed to look, making house calls. The kindly old gent with stethoscope and black medical bag calmly dispenses health care right there in the home. I thought house calls had gone the way of the delivery boy bringing groceries to the home and the milkman leaving milk on the front porch awaiting customers when they arose in the morning. I thought house calls had gone the way of 50 cent per gallon gasoline and personal service at the gas station you old timers remember when an attendant met you at the pump, filled the tank, checked the oil, water and put air in the tires, thanking you with a salute as you drove away.

The article in question appeared in the Kansas City Star, but was reprinted from the Colorado Springs Gazette, written by Bill Radford. This particular article had a local interest in that it was about a Colorado Springs outfit called Physicians On Call. This particular service isn't provided by MDs, but rather physicians assistants. Nurse practitioners call on patients in their homes or offices 24 hours a day. They evaluate and treat patients who need urgent but not emergency care. It's for the child with middle of the night croup, cuts, bruises, and other ailments not warranting calling 911, but where some treatment is needed.

I know, I know. You might be saying that this isn't really doctors making house calls; it's nurses and emergency medical technicians, the same people who answer emergency calls. That's true, and if it is a 911 emergency, the regular EMTs will come and rush patients to the hospital. The Colorado Springs example isn't one where doctors are actually make old-fashioned house calls; however, the company is guided by protocols reviewed and approved by the state Board of Medical Examiners, and is surely better than suffering, or going to a hospital ER when it isn't necessary.

This article goes on to point to other services where MDs actually do make house calls. San Diego, for instance, where folks can ring up the Call Doctor Company and a medical school graduate, certified doctor will come to the home and tend to aches and pains. And Las Vegas is being used as a test market by On-Call Medicine for its medical house call business; one it hopes to expand nationally. It's sort of like a medical version of Domino's Pizza. When you want a pizza, you call for home delivery; when you are sick, you call for home health care. Sounds to me like an idea whose time has come. Think about it. If you are sick or have an injury that may be serious, but not enough to justify going to an emergency room, you're stuck. If you call your doctor today, you'll be told you can be worked in right after Labor Day. About all you can do is either tough it out, or go to an ER. Where this service is available, call Docs on Wheels (That's not a real one, I just made it up).

It's long been my belief that if only two human beings on the planet are involved in an activity, they will form a national organization. Not surprisingly, there is an organization called the American Academy of Home Care Physicians, in Edgewood, Md. A spokesperson for the organization points out that house calls can actually cut medical costs because everything required to properly operate a high overhead medical office can be carried in the back of a car. If more equipment is needed, the patient belongs in the hospital.

Oh, yes. RRR. Everything old is new again because what goes around comes around.

(Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University and a Springfield public relations consultant.)