Pulse

Briefs

Building the home team, a neighborhood doc, research hits the streets.

Intensive Care at Home

High-tech equipment sized for little bodies, specialized providers, and two decades of experience have made it possible for kids with the most complex medical problems to be home.

No Place Like Home

Economic realities make it difficult to spend one’s final days at home.

Virtual Visits

A few home health care providers are extending their reach by remotely monitoring patients with chronic diseases, but whether more will do so hinges on reimbursement.

Quality Rounds

Keeping Home Health Care Patients Home

By Scott D. Smith

Reducing hospitalization rates is the gold standard for home care.


October 2008 | Table of Contents

Cover Story

The Case for House Calls

By Kate Ledger

Seeing patients in their homes can be a better way to provide care and ultimately save money. So why are so few physicians making house calls?

Perspectives

Tender Callings

By Nancy J. Baker, M.D.

A home visit unveils a patient’s and a physician’s shared love of poetry.

A Return to Hope

By Julia Leahy, R.N., M.A.T.

A home care nurse believes one patient’s greatest need is help rediscovering life’s meaning.

Medicine, Law, and Policy

Reducing Malpractice Risk for Physicians Providing Home Care

By Cinda Velasco, J.D.

Good communication, follow-up, and documentation reduce a physician’s risk of being sued for malpractice when providing or supervising home care.

Clinical and Health Affairs

Implementing a Stroke System of Care in a Rural Hospital: A Case Report from Granite Falls

By Dan Hoody, M.D., Sandra Hanson, M.D., Darrell Carter, M.D., and Therese Zink, M.D., M.P.H.

 

Trans Fats: Foods, Facts, and Biology

By So Young Bu, Ph.D., and Douglas G. Mashek, Ph.D.

 

What Are You Doing for the 76 Patients with COPD in Your Practice?

By Jill Heins Nesvold, M.S., Angie Carlson, Ph.D., Barbara Yawn, M.D., M.Sc., FAAFP, and Ken Joslyn, M.D., M.P.H.

 

Editor's Note

A Healing Place

 

MMA News

Noel R. Peterson, M.D., Elected MMA President
House Acts on Resolutions
Doctors Honor Their Peers
MMA Elects New Officers
G. Richard Geier, M.D., Receives Distinguished Service Award

. .