Virtual House Calls

So I realize that this article doesn’t pertain exactly to the county of St. Lawrence but I was interested by the last article we read about the lost practice of house calls. Upon researching the internet I have come to find that there are several companies like Stat Doctors or MDLivecare that do perform virtual house calls. These companies diagnosis and prescribe medications for common illnesses, like sore throats or sinus infections all via a web camera. All a patient has to do is sign on and register on the site and within 30 minutes they will be seen by someone at any hour of the day.

            I think this is a real step forward in bringing back the idea of house calls. Instead of a doctor having to drive 100 miles and only see a couple of patients, they can interact with more patients in a day and do more frequent follow ups. An orthopedic surgeon can check on a patients progress after they went home to make sure they are doing fine. Or if the patient is concerned their surgical wound is becoming infected, they could consult a doctor immediately. Patients far from a hospital can have access to medical care from the comfort of their home. They would be able to get a doctors advice on an illness and whether to make the trek to the nearest place. Its not a perfect switch because nothing can beat a human to human interaction but at least its progress. There are still kinks to be work out on it but I feel eventually this could become a common thing and a great benefit to rural communities.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/2011/01/07/20110107scottsdale-hospital-employees-get-virtual-house-calls.html

http://www.limaohio.com/news/local_news/article_4cd2c64a-14be-11e2-8b8d-001a4bcf6878.html