by KYW's medical editor Dr. Brian McDonough
One of the biggest challenges facing medicine today is to provide quality healthcare for our senior citizens. Of course one of the biggest barriers that many seniors face is getting to the doctor’s office in the first place.
According to very interesting research in the Journal of the American Medical Association, a variation in the traditional house call may be an effective way to provide low-income seniors with quality healthcare, and it could reduce their rates of emergency room visits and hospital stays.
It is called the "Grace" Program, and it started at Indiana University with social workers and nurse practitioners visiting and telephoning patients in their homes. They averaged 18 contacts with each patient per year during the study.
The social workers and nurse practitioners regularly talked with each other and with doctors about the patients’ needs. The Grace Program reduced emergency room visits by 20 percent.
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