NEWSFLASH! Hell Freezes Over! Doctors Make House Calls Again!

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When I was a little kid back in the Jurassic Age (you know, the 50's, in the last century), my grandmother, with whom I lived, would, on rare occasion, fall too ill to go to the hospital. In those days, doctors still made house calls. They'd do minor patching up, take temps & listen to your heart, & prescribe medicine or even give you a shot, but for anything more serious, they'd tell you to go to the hospital, or at least take 2 aspirin & come to the clinic when you felt better. Then they stopped coming altogether, & unless you could come to see them, or get a ride to a hospital, you were on your own. Well, many years passed in this way, & then a few years ago, several doctors realized that they could actually save on overhead if they banded together in a non-fancy clinic, or were even just conveniently listed in the phone book as a "clinic," even though no patients visited them. They could rent a small building to house records, take phone calls, store pharmaceuticals & equipment quite cheaply, & farm out nurses or nurse practitioners most of the time to come to client's home. It is far less expensive, but it benefits the client by being less stressful, too, making healing easier & faster. I "belong" to one such "clinic," called "House Call Doctors," one of 2 such agencies in Austin, & it's amazing what they've been able to do for me! I've had blood drawn, physical therapy, heart monitoring, EKGs, EEGs, x-rays & other things done in my own little apartment! Not even Grandma's family doctor, Dr. Turner, could do all that! So! Did you know house calls were back? Is there such a "clinic" in your area? Have you had occasion to take advantage of it? What did you think of it? Tell us! Maggiepie "The patriot's blood is the seed of freedom's tree." ~ Thomas Campbell