Review: "Admitted to Your Bedroom: Some Hospitals Try Treating Patient at Home" – The New

What a refreshing article that reminds us that there are ingenious pragmatic souls in health care who still care deeply about the patient-provider relationship.

This blog article was written by Daniela J. Lamas, MD.

There's an adage in medicine that "the patient knows best." For pediatrics, we take that adage further: "Mom knows best." This is not to say that patients can diagnose or treat themselves without a provider, but they are the best historians for a provider to use in finding the best diagnosis and treatment plan.

For some, likely many patients, their home is their place of comfort and solace. And a temporary adjustment to include health care personnel and equipment while they recover is not only a welcome option, but possibly the best option.

Having a flexible health care delivery system that rewards innovative practical approaches like this is key to improving patient-provider relations and the therapeutic relationship.

P.S.Y.C.H. is unique in that it covers innovative programs like this. I imagine that lots more providers will do house calls rather than spend the expense opening and maintaining a storefront clinic. Especially when costs are known, patients can shop around for the best providers who fit their needs. No, this doesn't force any provider to make house calls; but it does build a market for those that want to. Costs will be kept down by the number of providers willing to do it and do it well.

As a psychiatrist, I think home visits can be extremely revealing and helpful to patients, so I look forward to exploring this idea more once the system is implemented.

#housecalls #hospitals #PSYCHplan #NYTimes