In-home physician visits and large medical groups

In-home care has grown rapidly in the past decade and has become increasingly complex. Accompanying these changes has been a resurgence of what was once thought to be an endangered if not extinct species, the physician house call. This paper is concerned with the involvement in the provision of physician home visits by large medical groups, and with how this involvement is related to the characteristics of the medical group. In December 1989, telephone interviews were conducted with 174 large medical groups (those with more than 50 physician members), representing a response rate of 73 percent of the universe of (239) groups found to fit study criteria. Of responding groups, 52 percent indicated that they provided physician home visits. Groups in states with higher proportions of population aged 85 years and over and groups that report accepting physician house calls are more likely to provide house calls. It is concluded that the provision of house calls by large medical groups is likely to increase with the greater complexity of in-home care, the shift of acute care into the home, and the rapid growth of the very old population.