Home care: a key to the future of family medicine?

This essay is about my transition from family medicine residency into house call/home-based primary care practice. Though some aspects of making home visits have been difficult and uncomfortable, I have found a higher level of satisfaction and sense of purpose than I had as a resident in a traditional outpatient clinic. This enhanced satisfaction is, in part, due to my discovery that a lower-volume, time-intensive house call practice is a more appropriate way than the brief office visit to care for older patients who have multiple morbidities. In light of the aging population, advances in portable medical technology, and changes in Medicare reimbursement, home care could become a key to the future success and ongoing relevance of family medicine.