Reviving an Old Tradition: Making House Calls
By: Source: AARP Bulletin Today Date Posted: 2003-07-31 13:55:39
Eric DeJonge, M.D., breaks into a wide grin when his patients tell him—as they nearly always do—that he's much too young to be a geriatrician.
DeJonge, 38, clearly delights in the rich experiences of caring for his older patients in and around Washington, D.C., as well as in doing what few doctors do anymore—making house calls.
| Eric DeJonge, M.D., 38, is one of a growing number of doctors pioneering a new system of " portable " care. Photo by Tom Wolff |
"These folks have trouble getting to the doctor's office often enough to monitor their illnesses well," DeJonge told the AARP Bulletin.
DeJonge and a colleague at the Washington Hospital Center, George Taler, M.D., have proved that older patients needn't necessarily receive second-class medical care.
DeJonge and Taler, 52, are among a small but growing number of geriatricians who have traded the traditional office setting for a portable, patient-centered system of care. They take their mobile practice—complete with portable EKG machine, blood analyzers, oxygen monitor, vascular ultrasound (which checks the pulse and circulation) and other diagnostic equipment—on the road up to four days a week.
Nearly 500 patients ranging in age from 75 to 100 are enrolled in the Washington Hospital Center's House Call Program, which began in 1999. The program has reduced emergency room visits and hospital stays (by two full days, on average), partly, DeJonge says, because the house call approach provides "an early warning system."
preview