An emerging model of primary care for older adults: the house call-home care practice.
House calls to older adults have become more common, in part related to the emergence of medical practices that either emphasize or exclusively provide house calls. In this article we seek to describe organizational, clinician, and patient characteristics of house call-home medical care practices in the United States. We conducted telephone interviews with clinicians representing 36 randomly selected practices from across the United States. This study found that house call-home care practices typically are recently formed small groups of physicians and nurse practitioners that provide in-home primary care, especially chronic disease care, to Medicare beneficiaries. Clinicians are motivated by the opportunity to improve care and to maintain autonomy. This emerging model may represent a mutually beneficial trend for older adults and physicians.
Landers
Steven H
SH
Cleveland Clinic Center for Home Care Services, Independence, OH 44131, USA. landers@ccf.org
Gunn
Paul W
PW
Stange
Kurt C
KC
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D006792:House Calls / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D014481:United States