A survey of domiciliary consultations in medicine for the elderly

The objective of this study was to assess the value of domiciliary consultations carried out by two hospital physicians for care of the elderly, using the resulting admission rates as one of the criteria. The action taken by the physicians on domiciliary visits was also studied. Data were collected retrospectively from all the domiciliary consultations done by the two departmental physicians from January 1992 to December 1992. From totals of 184 and 268 domiciliary consultations only 14.1% and 11.2% of patients seen respectively by consultant 1 and consultant 2 were admitted acutely to hospital. Overall, consultant 1 had something to offer in 92.4% of his domiciliary visits and consultant 2 took action in 81.3% of his domiciliary consultations. Most of the GP practices in the area used the service and only one practice was responsible for more than 10% of one consultant's domiciliary consultations. Domiciliary consultations form a useful service in medicine for the elderly and admission rates to hospital from these visits are low.