As a naturopathic physician, it’s been a pleasure to do house calls for patients. It works out well for the patients and well for me, too.

For patients, they have the ease of fitting the visit into their schedule, with no added driving and parking hassles. They are comfortable and can be more relaxed in their home environment.

For me as the physician, I get to know my patients better, and to really understand their lifestyle. Since I specialize in sleep, it’s also helpful to see the bedroom sleep environment. Although we routinely discuss light in the initial office visit, I’ve discovered two patients had a skylight over their bed that they had forgotten to mention.

Historically, house calls were the way medicine was practiced until late into the 19th century. In 1971 only 1% of doctors visits were house calls. In recent years house calls have become more popular, especially for the elderly.  My hope is that this type of visit can become more common for people of all ages, and helps deepen the physician-patient healing relationship.