House calls for respiratory tract infections; family medicine pure and simple?
House calls still seem to be an important element in the work of general practitioners in the Netherlands. A secondary analysis of the data of the Netherlands Institute of Primary Health Care (NIVEL) National Study of Illnesses and Procedures reveals that 15% of the contacts relating to cases of respiratory tract infections are house calls. General practitioners appear to consider carefully whether or not to make house calls. House call figures differ considerably with respect to diagnosis, reasons for encounter and age. Relatively high percentages of house calls occur in cases of lower respiratory tract infections, fever as reason for encounter, for old people and young children. The number of house calls is hardly associated with region, level of urbanization and distance from a hospital. Further research is necessary to establish guidelines for the decision whether or not to make a house call.
de Melker
R A
RA
Department of Family Medicine, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
van der Velden
J
J
Kuyvenhoven
M M
MM
D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D005194:Family Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006792:House Calls / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*