Doctors Making House Calls

Doctors Making House Calls

By Joseph Parish

One of the things which most of the older people tend to miss are the doctors who made house calls. I always felt that these were truly dedicated individuals for which you knew immediately that they honestly cared about your well-being. Although gone in this modern day and age, many doctors still remain fresh in our minds. One such man was our family doctor Peter Penico. Here was a man who had true feelings for his patients. To him, being a doctor stood out before profits and fancy cars.

I recall a time that both my brother Dave and I were bedridden and without question Dr. Penico arrived at our home to treat our illness. He even brought the necessary medicine to dispense to my mother for our rapid recovery. Granted, they were the trial size packages which were often provided by the doctor courtesy of the pharmaceutical firms but medicine just the same. After examining my brother and me with his stethoscope and employing the tongue depressor on our mouth, he would quietly brief my parents on what he had discovered during his examination and how long we would be bedridden. If needed, Doctor Penico would provide a short note to submit to the school to excuse our absence. As he prepared to depart, he would reach into his medical bag and withdraw a large handful of medical samplers and proceed to hand them to my mother. If you did not have the five-dollar fee, which he charged he would cheerfully provide you ample time to pay him.

No longer can we find doctors who are so dedicated to serving their patients that they make house calls. The prime reason for this lack of house call doctors involves the financial aspects of the medical profession. Times have changed and in today's modern world it is difficult for a doctor to charge enough to justify their time that it would take to drive to a specific location, fill the car gas tank with gasoline and for the amount of time necessary for a professional visit. Unfortunately, the house calls which I experienced as a child have now faded into history. No longer are doctors and patients emotionally connected and physicians often lack the patient and doctor bonding. It is this loss of an intimate relationship and closeness that has left the visiting doctor scenario long into the past. Doctors today lack the openness and honest interaction which comes from meeting a patient in their home. There is no longer the personal interest, the intimacy and honesty present with modern office calls.

The modern doctor lacks the time to spend with their patients as doctors, such as Doctor Penico had done years ago. Today, doctors work on a tight schedule. As an example, you check into the front desk, the clerk ensures that you have either proper insurance or cash to make the payment needed, your vital signs are taken by the nurse assistant and you are placed in a cool, non-personal room decorated with an assortment of pharmaceutical ads. As you glance around your small confined enclosure you see various medical supplies stacked on the countertops such as gauze containers, disposable gowns and the all too familiar Red Sharps Container. My current physician allocated a mere fifteen-minute window for review and examination of my case and then it is the next person's turn. I often feel that I am on some sort of assembly line. You see the nurse assistant longer than you do the doctor if and when she comes into the examining room. If we contrast this attitude with the warmth, previously displayed by the medical profession we have as a society lost a valuable doctor-patient interaction.

It was not unusual when Doctor Penico would visit our home to treat an ill member of the family that he would happily sit a few extra minutes and discuss the problems involved with the ill patient over a steaming hot cup of coffee. Doctor Penico lived a life filled with mutual caring and respect towards his patience. I doubt very much if we shall ever see the return of house calls in view of the amount invested by the doctor, but it is always nice to remember those days when the patient had a special place in the heart of their doctor.

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