Physician Home Visits from the Viewpoint of the Disabled Elderly and Their Caregivers

Abstract

In contrast to most studies about physician home visits which questioned physicians about their practices, we interviewed 307 caregivers regarding their elderly relative's experience with physician home visits. Twenty-one percent reported having received a home visit by the primary physician and an additional 24% believed the physician would come if needed. The length of time the physician had been caring for the patient was significantly higher than the group who had received home visits. The only health services utilization data that could be shown to correlate was the use of visiting nurse services. Three patient characteristics demonstrated significant positive correlations to the receipt of a home visit: the need to be lifted or turned, the use of urinary catheters, and the need to be cleaned of incontinent stool.