The House-Call Habit

Thirty years ago, U.S. doctors saw four out of ten patients in the patients' houses; last year the ratio was one out of ten. The doctor himself has welcomed the passing of the house-call,* but many a citizen counts this skid as just one more sign that doctors are cold, uncaring fellows, heartlessly indifferent to the fact that little Priscilla's forehead feels hot or Grandma's arthritis is acting up. In Medical Economics, a Westwood. N.J.. pediatrician named Phoebe Hudson scoffs at this complaint. House calls, she says, "are just a bad habit." Her reasons:

> ''House calls, for the most part, are as outdated as the horse and buggy. They're a left-over from the days when most people didn't have cars and when doctors had to go to patients' homes."

>-"Time after time, I hear of doctors who go out on a house call only to find the patient needs an examination that can't be done in the home. In the end, this costs the patient more time and money than if the doctor had insisted on an office visit in the first place."

> "It's pretty hard to practice good medicine in most homes. I know, because I've tried to examine children on big beds, little beds, cribs with sides that wouldn't go down, sinks, davenports, and laps."

Not that Dr. Hudson believes that all house calls should be abolished. "Sure." she said. "I make some house calls. Croup, convulsions and certain accidents bring me on the double. Sometimes I go out just as a favor to a good patient.''

* The American Medical Association reports that in 1930 the doctor was able to see an average of 50 patients a week: today the average is 100

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