A Gift in Every Housecall

In my new housecall practice, I have more time to get to know my patients.

But being invited to spend an hour with a new patient in their home is more than just a longer routine, clinical appointment. It is an inversion of the usual doctor-patient relationship. In an office based practice, patients visit me in rooms that reflect what I can do, like the visible medical furnishings and equipment, or have done, like the diplomas on the wall. In a housecall, my patient is the host. I have fewer accoutrements. I very clearly feel like a guest. And as a guest I usually try to bring something you might think of as a gift.

The gift I bring is not a “thing”, and I’m not even sure that most patients perceive it as a gift in that moment. But I have found they often speak of it in such terms as we wrap up the visit or the next time I see them.