In Washington D.C, there was a patient named Carolyn. She’s in her late 60s and she suffered from liver as well as heart failure, she is also suffering from depression, falling and she was admitted to the hospital around 6xs in just 2011. Her daughter looked for a way to make her secure and for a more comprehensive and modern care. Her daughter has discovered the MedStar Washington Hospital Center’s Medical House Call Program in Washington, D.C. it is an independent Home Care Institution and it is actually projecting sustained by the CMS. Just after engaging in the program, Carolyn was admitted 2xs from 2011- 2015 and as expected, she got an urgent care and all the screenings were done through 150 house calls.

Medical home program

According to Dr. Jonge, the Director of the Geriatrics in the said hospital, the case of Carolyn is about scaling up a successful medical home program. The house call program, he added, enabled an interdisciplinary group to keep on monitoring her case closely and to always visit her anytime of the day. According to the daughter of Carolyn, the alteration saved her mother’s life and her own life as well. The doctor even added that it also helped them save a lot of money, which was given to the doctors.

The so called house program is made to keep the patient out of the hospital and also lessen the cost that must be spent in the health care, according to the doctor. He also added that to be able to reach these goals, the group of doctors, nurses and social workers give care for patients who usually are very sick to go to the clinic to seek medical care. Normally, approved as a 3 year pilot program, it was given extensions for another 2 years.

The MedStar Washington Hospital Center

Generally, the independence in the home initiative submitted a report of $25M savings of 8,500 costly patients in 15 programs within the 1st year and it has captured the attention of the doctors and policymakers at the same time. The Family Doctor, Dr. Cornwell of the famous Wheaton, specializes in caring for patients who are very sick and couldn’t go to the hospital anymore to seek medical attention. He spoke about the intention during the discussion which was about the Family Medicine. The focus of the discussion is about the health as a primary campaign.

With it, on the other hand, the MedStar Washington Hospital Center was very cynical about the house call program to generate enough funds that it didn’t even market it to the patients initially. There will be no upfront payment that was given to the patients; however, a shared savings payment in 2015 enabled Dr. Jonge to boost the pay for the primary care doctors who make the house calls by around 15%. The program is now handling 3,200 patients. They said Dr. has estimated as well that if the house call program expands  throughout the country, wherein 2M Medcare beneficiaries with serious cases of chronic ailments consume around 43% of the Medicare budget, this may help save $21B to $34B in just 10 years.