Is There a Doctor in the House?

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In the MID-1990s, pop futurist and Madison Avenue guru Faith Popcorn made this bold prediction: “In the near future, American doctors will be making house calls again.” To her credit, Popcorn did foresee casual Fridays and on-line grocery stores—but among all of her prognostications, this one seemed one of the wackiest and least likely to occur. After all, this is the age of managed, impersonal healthcare.

Well, Faith was right again. Doctors are, indeed, going home again. In San Diego and across the country, house calls are on the rise. According to the American Medical Association, more than 6 million Americans now receive visits from doctors in their homes, offices or hotel rooms—and that number grows annually.

But while this is an undeniable trend, don’t expect your family doc to stop by the house anytime soon. Jeffrey Dysart, a family practice physician in San Diego whose office is just up the hill from Qualcomm Stadium, doesn’t see house calls getting too popular among San Diego doctors in private practice.

“I’m sure a lot of doctors wish they could do more house calls and spend more quality time with each patient, but that’s difficult to do because of the time constraints and because of the managed-care situation,” Dysart says. “Most doctors really enjoy the interaction house calls offer as much as the patients do, but in the current healthcare environment it just isn’t a realistic option for many private doctors. With the population aging as it is, and with the growing concern over the length of time it takes to receive emergency room care, I’m sure house calls will become more popular in the future. However, for economic reasons, I doubt if it will ever again be anything more than a niche market.”

Still, this old-school custom is making a comeback. Undoubtedly, patient and doctor dissatisfaction with managed-care insurance companies has something to do with it, as does the aging of the population. A less tangible—but probably equally significant—factor is our common craving for more time and attention from our physicians. In other words, we all could use a good old-fashioned bedside manner.

Doctors who make house calls these days run the gamut. According to healthcare experts, most are either young and don’t yet have an established practice or are older and are slowing down their practice—just looking for supplemental income. Some just like the idea of giving their patients a higher quality of care than the current healthcare environment allows in a doctor’s office or emergency room.

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