Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
When I was little, early 1960s, the doctor came to the house to give us shots. He was mean and yelled at me for crying when he jabbed me with the needle.
I don't remember if he retired or what, but we started going to a different doctor at his office at some point. He lived in a house and his Dr office was attached to the house, which was quite common back then.
Now my disabled bf has a palliative care doctor who comes to the house!
House calls were the major way in which doctors interacted with their patients, especially children and old people. The doctor came to the house and examined you.
They stopped house calls for two major reasons (IMHO):
1. Not financially efficient. Too much time was spent having the doctor to from house to house. Remember there were no cell phones back in the olden days.
2. New diagnostic tools are not as portable as the doctor's brain, which did almost all of the diagnostic work back in the olden days. Now, there are machines and lab tests that cannot be carried to the patient's home.
So, now we, the patients, venture out of the house into the miasma outdoors and travel to the doctor's office, where we will sit amongst ill people for what seems like hours.
But the doctor is more productive because the assembly line (we patients) is fed to him in an unending stream.
House calls? As far as I can remember that's all there were. Such as--when I came home from school one day and threw up, I was put to bed and the doctor was called. I don't remember whether he came that night or the next day but he said I had the measles and to stay in bed, keep the room darkened. He advised my parents to get a lot of books to read to me because I shouldn't be using my eyes very much.
It had a lot of advantages because the doctor could meet your whole family, see how they interacted, see how you lived. So it was a lot more personal and they really got to know you. Maybe it could be called more "holistic." Our family doctor would often stay for dinner if he happened to be there at the right time. While dinner was being cooked he'd play the piano, beautifully.
They took their time and it paid off. One doctor came to the house after I had fallen off my bike and couldn't walk. He talked to my mother, talked to me, and then he sort of whispered something to my mother. All of a sudden she called me for some chocolate chip cookies if I would just come and get them. So I jumped off the couch and ran over to get the cookies. Nothing wrong with my leg, just hurt feelings that my mom hadn't stayed out and helped me to learn how to ride a bike! (I wasn't intentionally faking; I really didn't think I could walk.)
So things like that were lost when doctors stopped coming to the house. Along with that, the doctor could see my elderly grandmother without her leaving and going out in the cold. First time I remember having to go OUT to a doctor was when we took my little sister. Drove into the city, walked a few blocks in the freezing cold, went into a building and sat in a doctor's office, waited so long that my sister finally collapsed. She was put into another little room and when the doctor finally saw her he was angry at US for exposing his entire waiting room to SCARLET FEVER!
We switched to another doctor who worked out of his own home in our town so it was a little bit better but still much worse than having the doctor come to the house when you were sick. I felt like I didn't even know the doctor which was different from when they came to your house. It felt impersonal. I think if you're just going for tests or a regular check up, it's fine to go to an office, but when you're sick they shouldn't make you get out of bed, get dressed and somehow get yourself to a doctor, exposing everyone in the waiting room while you're there.
The reason for discontinuing home visits that I heard at the time was that the doctors could do special tests in their offices that they couldn't do in your home. When they used to come to the house they carried their little black bag with some instruments and the exam was more like looking at your tongue, taking your temperature, using the stethoscope, asking you questions, sitting by your bedside and talking. They talked with the parent/s too and would often give advice about getting out in the sunshine and playing outdoors to get exercise.
I don't know how the doctors ever found the time to drive around to all the patients' homes and then there's the consideration of their car and gas too. Of course this was mostly for simple illnesses like the usual childhood illness or a bad cough or bronchitis or broken limb for older people. Probably for anything much more serious there was nothing anyone could do anyway. Medicine has come a long as in terms of what they can do and what illnesses can be healed but I think a lot was lost when home visits were discontinued.
Last edited by in_newengland; 10-18-2022 at 11:03 AM..
...yes, i remember fondly how Dr Babineau would come to the house (mid/late '50's) for our shots and if we were ill, there was seven of us, i saw him a lot...
...the doc was a personal friend of my folks and i can remember after taking care of business he and my mom would sit on the couch, chew the rag, so to speak while they smoked Salem cigarettes...wild...
Increasing, non-portable tech had something to do with with the demise of the house call, but probably the biggest factor was the logarithmic growth in the general population vs stagnant growth in the number of doctors between the '40s and the 70's. The docs' office load was huge and time short...and then add in the increasing availability of automobiles making it much easier for a pt to come to the doc's office.
I practiced in a blue collar neighborhood of Chicago/near 'burbs and did house calls once week on a schedule for home bound elderly & crippled pts, allowing them to remain at home with family rather than go to nursing homes, but I wouldn't have had the time to do urgent calls in a timely manner.
When I did my Peds rotation as a student, our proctor was an old timer. He said in the old days before PCN or any really effective meds, the doc would do a house call on a sick kid. He'd exam the kid, then look at the window....If it was open, he'd say "Close the window and your child will get better on a week."....If it was closed, he'd say 'Open the window and your child will get better in a week."...and the parents thought the docs were gods.
That’s mostly how I remember seeing doctors through high school. In 1960 I had an anaphylactic reaction to penicillin-hives all over and blood pressure so low I was fainting. My parents should’ve taken me to the ER but they called the doctor to make a house call!
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,570 posts, read 81,167,557 times
Reputation: 57798
I only remember having house calls until I was about 8 years old, that would be 1960. The doctor would show up with a big black bag, usually just use the stethoscope and maybe a tongue depressor. With the time we spend in the waiting room today, traffic, and check-in paperwork the doctors would never get to see any significant number of patients if they did house calls.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
