Hospitals vs House Calls

My mother was not a fan of Hospitals.  In fact she described them as the place you went to die.

 

Now I thought her views were just silly because of course in the modern world hospitals were where we got better. 

 

Thinking about her view and when she grew up, doctors used to make house calls.  For the majority of things they would take your temperature, listen to your heart ask you a few questions and tell you to rest and fill a prescription. They might advise your caretaker on what to watch for.  If they said you had to go to the hospital, it wasn't a good thing, it meant you had a very serious disease that he couldn't treat in your home.

 

So yes, trips to the hospital were bad and often preceded dying.

 

Those same doctors also had offices  where they also would treat you.  Those still exist but of course they required you to go there.  If you were too sick for that the doctor would come to you.

 

I'm not aware of any doctors that still make house calls, although of course they could exist.  If you think about being treated at home vs being treated in a hospital the difference in cost and risk are significant.  Yes hospitals are supposed to be sterile but we know that they also have some significant risks.  They are also incredibly expensive and are likely to perform a lot of tests to make sure they aren't sued. 

 

At home it might not be sterile, but it could be clean enough and certainly wouldn't cost anywhere near what a hospital does.  While a doctor might refer you for some tests, it just seems much less likely in most cases. 

 

Will we ever return to the world of house calls?  It doesn't seem likely but we now have virtual consults and perhaps the on site person doesn't have to be an MD, merely have one on-line to direct a visiting  assistant.

 

It seems like it could be a way to reduce health costs and provide treatment for a large percentage of people with common ailments. 

 

Just an idea but maybe its time?

Science vs Superstition

We live in an era where many of the things that used to kill us are not much of a threat, assuming we follow prevalent advice.

Of course from our earliest days we tried to overcome injuries and illnesses via use of people who claimed to have certain abilities or communion with spirits.  Some of the things they did with herbs and other remedies actually had beneficial effects, since trial and error often led to moderately effective treatments.

However, they often used a hit or miss approach with no guarantee of success and like many current charlatans noted their successes without ever mentioning their failures.
Once in a while they used techniques that actually were likely to do more harm then good.

While there is evidence going back to ancient times of applied medical techniques using a more scientific approach, it was in the modern era that we developed the technology and infrastructure to effectively eliminate many diseases that had been a scourge to humanity.

Our life expectancy has greatly increased and many diseases that used to be largely fatal are now not.

Unless of course we ignore science and rely on superstitious remedies.

I was reading the story of a young boy who died from diabetes because his family decided to trust a herbalist who told them Insulin is poison.  It isn't.

We see people refusing vaccines because of inaccurate information or studies that have been discredited  because they don't understand or trust the science.

Yes some corporations might make unseemly profits providing drugs, but we do have ways to verify the effectiveness of those drugs.

Sometimes promises are made by non-traditional practitioners that seem too good to be true.  They are.

It is easy to believe that a complex problem has a simple solution that relies of some mystical belief.  If the ancients knew all the cures for everything, why didn't everything get cured?