By Healthcare Facilities Today

A century ago, a doctor’s visit meant the doctor came to you and managed everything from lumps and bumps to minimal surgical procedures. Going to the hospital happened only when all other options were exhausted, according to an article on the Healthcare Design magazine website.

Spiraling costs and Affordable Care Act pressures raising question whether old-fashioned house calls might be updated for today’s needs. Some industry leaders are saying yes — and they point to the medical home delivery model as a possible solution, the article said. 

A medical home is any place where an integrated team of providers can meet the gamut of a patient’s primary healthcare needs without sending the patient to a more expensive, specialty hospital, according to the article. Like the pediatric world where parents must often coordinate immediate, ongoing, and follow-up visits for young children, the medical home setting offers both the staff and the patient a variety of healthcare and social services, either on-site or in another immediately accessible department.  

Read the article.