Anyone ever have a real doctor house call?

What were the circumstances? Adult or child? What was it like?

When I was younger my Pediatrician lived around the corner from our house. In addition to her regular medical office she had an office at her home and saw patients there after hours. She never made her way to our home, but I did see her at her home office from time to time.

Even in my quite distant youth I never had a doctor make a house call. As a physician myself I have made them but only for friends. Actually once, when I was a resident, I had to go out and bring a patient back to the hospital. He had no phone. He had acute myelogenous leukemia and was getting chemo. His cell counts had dropped so low that he needed reverse isolation. He lived in west Oakland so it really was an experience.

Yes . As a child and once as an adult. As a child it was for whopping cough . I was then sent to hospital .

Another time as a child a group of us ate some laburnum seeds. Two Dr's came to the house who examined us all and called ambulances to get us to the children's hospital fast .

As an adult it was not a nice time . I'd had my twins one was in the NICU and the other had died. I left hospital 2 days after my C section as I was on a ward surrounded by new babies crying and happy mums. I was all sad as I was trying to come to terms with what had happened.

I went home with minimal pain relief. My ex husband called our Gp surgery who sent a Dr out to see me. She gave me a full exam and prescribed various drugs. That was 13 years ago .

Our family doctor made housecalls in the 50s. I recall having rectal temps done and the inevitable penicillin shot. In the 60s he made a couple of housecalls when my dad had a bad headache. When I was in practice I made maybe a dozen in 20 years, generally for patients well known to me who were housebound. Once to pronounce a patient dead.

I don't recall that a doctor ever made a house call to our house while I was growing up. But until we moved when I was 11, the clinic was just on the block behind our house, so we could walk to the clinic in three minutes.

Our doctor did make a house call to a family friend who was like a second mother to me. In her late 40s she came down with the mumps and was so sick. I know the doctor visited her at least twice. I was 6 at the time, and they really hoped I would catch the mumps from her, but it never happened.

When I was child, I remember from about 8 to 14 years old, the pediatrician made house calls. I used to get ear and throat infections all the time, 3 to 4 times a year. Many times my mother would call him and he would agree to come to the house. The result was the same as an office call. He would check my ears, throat, temperature, listen to my heart, etc. He would then tell my mother that I had an ear or throat infection and he was going to give me a penicillin shot. If at home, I was usually on the couch and I would have to pull my pants and underwear down below my knees and lay on my stomach. He would then give me a penicillin shot in the butt. If we were at his office, the same procedure except I was on the exam table with my pants and underwear down below my knees and he would give me the penicillin shot. At the office, his nurse was usually in the room also but the doctor always gave the shots himself. I hated the shots because of the pain and the embarrassment of taking my pants and underwear down. Many times he would tell my mother that I needed another shot in 3 days so those were always in his office. A trip to the office, and another shot in the butt. I hated these shots so much that after a while when I was sick I would tell my parents my stomach hurt because I knew they would not call the doctor for that and I thought in a couple of days it would get better but it never did. A sore throat or ear ache always meant at least one penicillin shot in the butt.

It is odd that what I hated as a child I like now. Now I love to be naked, laying on a bed or exam table, and to get one or two painful shots in the butt from a lovely lady. What I hated as a child became a fetish.

I guess I strayed a little from the house call thing.

I had doctor call at house as child and few times as an adult but for the most part these days I have to go to the surgery to see him or her but was common in early sixtys and late fiftys they came out partly they had cars most did not as child rectal temps were the norm as were penacilin injections in butt

No, I've never had a doctor make a house call to my house but a male doctor can make a house call any time, especially if he's wearing scrubs, a white coat, stethoscope, medical mask and gloves hahaha!!

Miss Amy you just need to call central casting. They can send one right up!

Doctors still do make house calls in the UK. My elderly mum had regular visits from her GP.

I grew up in the 50's and 60's. It was rather common for our pediatrician to make housecalls. The pharmacy also made deliveries. My mom was without transportation for many years. We lived on a bus line, but that wasn't the best way to get to the doctor with kids. Dr. Ross usually closed up in the mid-afternoon and would then see patients in their homes. His Doctor bag was full of the necessities, and mom had the rest of the necessary implements to address any treatments ordered.

I've posted in other threads, about some of those housecalls. I really disliked Dr. Ross because he was pretty gruff. It seemed as though he didn't like me and even threatened to put me in the hospital on a diet of Metamucil. It seemed as though he was always prescribing an enema, and scolded my mom a few times. "Give that kid an enema", "Have you given him an enema yet?", "All he needs is a good enema", were distinct statements that I will never forget.

The scoldings didn't go unheeded in our home. My mom didn't really need additional prompting to deploy the enema bag. We kids seldom went to the doctor's office, that an enema didn't precede the visit. In hindsight, it seems as though she became obsessed with being able to give an affirmative answer when asked if we kids were moving our bowels or having regular BM's.

These circumstances played out many times until Dr. Ross retired. His replacement didn't make those housecalls. That didn't really slow down mom's obsession with enemas for us 2 older kids. The 2 younger ones got their share, just not at the same frequency. Suppositories and laxatives became more common for them. One didn't dare use the "tummy ache" excuse for staying home from school or getting out of chores.

My dad was in a bad accident in 1965 and was crushed from the nipples down. He was on a body cast for almost 6 months. Our doctor would come to our house once a week to check on him

I was in a spica cast from the nipples down for five months in the '80 s. No doctor came to see me. I had to be transported by medical van lying on my back like a turtle. It was not fun.

Every time I was ill enough to stay home from school, the doctor paid a house call. He usually arrived late in the afternoon, so I spent all day dreading his arrival because the examination was normally followed by instruction to roll over for a penicillin shot in my bottom - not as humiliating as the ones I got bending over his receptionist's lap when I went to his surgery but painful and embarrassing nonetheless.

In the late 40's and the 50's our GP made house calls when I was quite sick. I don't remember a rectal thermometer, maybe I had outgrown it before I can remember, but I do remember the penicillin shots and, if I was in bed for more than a day or two, enemas.

There's a home doctor service available here for after hours services when GP surgeries are closed, to take the burden off emergency departments. I had a home visit once for a UTI. It wasn't very exciting. A random locum doctor showed up, I peed on a stick, nothing came up so he told me to drink lots of water and see my regular GP for an MSU. And he tested my blood sugar to make sure it wasn't a diabetes thing. And then he left. He was here for under 10 min. Apparently they have to see 4 patients an hour to make it worthwhile, and that includes travel.

I had some when I was a child. In France, it was more common 30 years ago. Now they do it only for elderly people who cannot move.

The one I remember best is when I had appendicitis. I was in a very bad shape, vomiting, fever and all. I ended up getting a digital rectal exam... but the doctor did not tell me exactly what would happen so I was extremely surprised when her finger came in. I was young and did not understand why she had put that rubber glove and asked my mom whether she had vaseline around.

Home visits are extremely rare here because it's so easy to call 911 and have the ambulance take you to the hospital emergency department. Some who do think they will be first in line when it's busy. Unless it's a real emergency they'll be in for a big surprise!

Liquidsky: In France, if you call 15 (the equivalent of 911, for medical emergencies) they triage calls - depending on urgency, you are sent an ambulance, some "home call" physician, or simply told to go to some physician. I generally would advise against going to the ER unless there is a real emergency - I'm told the nurses and physicians there really hate when people who come for minor, non urgent issues and such people are likely to wait for a LOOOONG time, because all real emergencies are processed first.

We absolutely hate it when people come in to the ER with things that are not emergent. For some reason there was a huge influx in this which is why urgent care centers came about. A lot of people don't have a regular doctor and use the ER as their doctor. My biggest pet peeve is parents who bring their kids in for things that can wait like ear infections, sore throats etc. Yes I realize that once in a great while those things go crazy and emergency treatment is needed, but those things can be handled by their regular doctor, during normal business hours. Then we get a bunch of addicts looking for their fix. They are always fun.

Mashie

Our family doctor made house calls for urgent matters and for all I know he still does. But only after his consults are done of course and only for something urgent. The last time it happened for me, was around 1989 or so. I had been ill with some sort of pulmonary thing for a week but still kept my shop open despite it all. Then late in the afternoon I crawled into bed and was sort of out of it for hours, almost ready to die for all I cared then. My wife had to leave for her job at the hospital, so she called the family doctor and he came by after she had left, maybe around 22h. As luck would have it, a lady friend of ours, a nurse, dropped by and she stayed until the doctor came. They both knew each other and after giving me some kind of injection (gamma globulin I think) they all had a fun get together.

My parents both had their doctor come by for non urgent house calls up until several years ago, when they passed away. And in all honesty, the times I was there when the doctor came by, I felt like he was just going through the motions, getting it over as quickly as possible, since nothing was really urgent, just routine stuff like filling prescriptions. But they lived in a semi-rural, suburban area, a sort of escape-the-city-and-minorities enclave, and the inhabitants there were pampered - and fleeced no doubt - by businesses and tradesmen and services in the area. Expensive house calls for inconsequential things being part of it all.

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In Belgium, if individuals make use of the ER for non urgent matters, they have to pay a surcharge. I think it is 50 or 75 euros, which doesn't sound much to an American, but which is around 8 to 10 times the normal charge for a medical consult. So it helps to keep away the non urgent cases. But what constitutes urgent? If you are admitted to a hospital room then your case was obviously urgent. So are broken bones.

But it's a bit arbitrary I think. Once my wife got caught between 2 fighting cats at night and her lower leg was cut open for some 15 centimeters, a real nasty gash pouring blood. She obviously needed stitching so I took her to an ER where she was sewed up. But, since she wasn't admitted, we did receive a surcharge afterwards, which I thought a bit excessive. It doesn't seem right to have to wait some 12 hours for normal business hours to get an open wound treated and sown up. A wound requiring stitches is somewhat similar in urgency compared to a broken bone.

But whatever, the surcharge was worth it.

We absolutely hate it when people come in to the ER with things that are not emergent.

I've always read that in the US, many people make use of the ER because of a lack of med insurance and because ER's are not allowed by law to refuse treatment to anyone. So they tend to get an influx of financially strapped people who do need medical attention, but cannot afford the going rate for medical services.

And yes, I do suppose these people get sent a bill afterwards, but it's easier to stall payment indefinitely and maybe hope it will dissipate in some manner, than to be refused any treatment at all.

In the mid 60s our family doctor still made house calls. He would only make them on certain days and even then during certain hours. I remember him coming to see me a couple of times, but I no longer recall the exact ailment. Nevertheless the experience was always the same because my mom had to first give me an enema, I had to put on fresh PJs, and from what I recall I would always get a shot in the bum.

Agracier that was totally unreasonable to be given a surcharge for having a wound sutured. That was a true emergency. Wounds need to be sutured within six to eight hours or they simply can't be closed because of the certainty of infection. What I was talking about were cases such as these. A twenty year old woman who came in because her panties were stuck to her vulva. A young woman who came in because a light bulb had broken and showered her hair with glass. As far as people seeking the ER because they have no insurance, yes it happens frequently. Now with the Affordable Care Act it's improving.

When I was 7 in 1954, my GP did make a house call for me. At the time, I'd been home sick for 48 hours with what was known then as "the 24 hour flu" for lack of a better name. The doctor listened to my chest with his stethoscope then my abdomen. He then proceeded to have me turn over and took my rectal temp which was some degree elevated above "normal".

It was at this point he looked at my mother and said to give me a soapsuds enema and everything should return to normal within 24 hours, otherwise to call him back. This was the one and only enema I was to get from my parents and mom used her regular red hang-up, closed-top bag with the red hose and black phenolic nozzles. Mom had me down on the bathroom floor in the Sims position and administered one soapy enema (Ivory soap). I held as long as I could and then expelled and returned to bed.

The next day I was feeling better and returned to school the next morning....

This was also the enema that "took" and started me down the happy road to enema play and anal exploration.

I remember our GP making a house call once, when I was about five or six. I don't remember what was wrong (it was tonsillitis or scarlet fever) but I do remember she couldn't get her car started afterwards and asked my dad to help.

The only problem with that was that he couldn't drive!

In the United States after World War II, it was fairly common for family doctors to make house calls. I can remember our family doctor visiting the house on several occasions.

It may have been a carryover for established patients from the Great Depression and war years. During the Depression, many people could not afford to travel to see a doctor. Then, during the war, gasoline was rationed and people relied on public transportation rather than private automobiles. The practice seems to have disappeared after the mid-1950s.

In what has to be one of the more unusual house calls in a practitioner's career according to the grandmother of one of my friends, a family doctor reportedly prescribed the daughter in the family be spanked with a switch after his examination found the young woman wasted his time by faking her symptoms.

Ha ha Some Old Guy. I wish all the time I could prescribe corporal punishment for a lot of my stupid patients. Instead I have to resort to graphic fantasies about them. So if you're ever wondering about what the doctor is thinking you might be surprised!

I grew up in the 60's and our Pediatrician made house calls. Especially if a kid had measles, mumps, or chickenpox. They didn't want some sick kid to come to the office and expose other kids to whatever they had. For regular physicals and shots, we went to the doctor's office.

It is normal here to have doctor visiting you at home especially when you have something that is not really threatening but that could become worse by visiting a clinic and getting exposed to really sick people. These doctors are usually in a hurry so they don't really take a long time checking you; it's usually just "open your mouth, say ah, take these pills and good bye". What I find a little weird is that when I've had them at home I've been kind of sick in my bed, and thus I've been wearing pijamas.