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GERIATRIC
CARE
FBAUCKTTUORTHEE
The Return of the House Call
By David Cavazos, Practice Manager at DAYS
The American economy can no longer sustain the continued rise often respond better to a candid conversation with the doctor than
of healthcare costs. There is, however, an emergent practice from to an antidepressant. Sometimes holding a patient’s hand can be
the early 20th century that is both making a comeback and having more effective than a shot of morphine. Whether or not the patient
an impact on healthcare cost reduction. I am referring to a group of is a smoker is no longer a check box but an odor. The home envi-
doctors and mid-level practitioners that are now armed with modern ronment is often the best indicator of one’s health.
technology (mobile X-rays, sonograms, EKG’s, ultrasound, IV in-
fusions of antibiotics, etc.) and visit their patients where they live I recently had the opportunity to meet Dr. Thomas Cornwell,
— be it a home, an apartment, a facility or personal care home. past president of the American Academy of Home Care Medicine,
at the AAHCM annual conference. Dr. Cornwell is one of the na-
These primary care physicians are improving the healthcare and tion’s leaders and researchers of home care medicine. His research
quality of life of a segment of the population that keeps increasing paper, Home Care Medicine’s Perfect Storm, provided me with the
yearly. I refer to the increasing geriatric population with multiple national statistics and cost savings data for this article.
diagnoses that find it hard to have to wait hours at a time to be seen
in a doctor’s office. These include demented patients with behavioral The geriatric population is rapidly increasing and
problems, paraplegic and quadriplegics on respirators and many so are the costs associated with their care.
more. This is a segment of society where seeing a doctor can be quite
difficult. Home visits provide a more accurate picture of the patient’s At least 1 million seniors are permanently homebound and an
conditions, compliance, social support and functional needs. Most additional 2 to 3 million are disabled and have a difficult time
physicians have no idea of the social environment that their patients getting to a doctor’s office. U.S. healthcare spending reached $2.9
live in. trillion in 2013 representing 17.4 percent of the Gross Domestic
Product. Those over the age of 65 are the most rapidly growing
Going on our 7th year of practice, working for Doctor At Your population and are also associated with the highest healthcare
Service (DAYS) has been rewarding in more ways than one. Most costs. A crisis is approaching due to an aging population, medical
patients and their families truly appreciate this type of service. Dr. cost inflation that exceeds economic growth, and the lack of a
Antonio Cavazos, Jr., owner and a physician of DAYS, is often asked comprehensive strategy for care of people with advanced chronic
to have a cup of coffee or breakfast while on a home visit. Patients
22 San Antonio Medicine • July 2016
