Geriatric Home-Based Medical Care

Older adults?are?living?longer?with?more?chronic disease and functional impairment?than at any other time in history. Office-based?practice?is inadequate to?meet the needs of patients who?have difficulty leaving?their homes for routine or urgent?visits,?and health care clinicians must choose between trying to manage their problems via telehealth?or?sending them to the emergency room via ambulance. Indeed, many clinicians receive little or no training in home-based medical care and?are unable to?consider a home visit that might avert a healthcrisisor an?emergency room?visit. Other clinicians know that house calls arepossible butmay not know how to work them into day-to-day practice.? In recent years, a growing number ofclinicians have focused their practice onhome-based medical care tomeet therising need. In fact, therehas beena substantial increase in house calls provided toMedicare beneficiaries. In 2023, over 750,000 traditional Medicare beneficiaries, and in 2022, over 680,000 Medicare Advantage beneficiaries received longitudinal home-based medical care. While thenumber ofhouse calls has increased rapidly, thenumber ofclinicians providing those visits has markedly decreased, suggesting that clinicians who are providing such care are making it the sole focus of their practice. This?book is intended to be a practical reference for any clinician who has struggled to care for an older adult who has difficulty getting to the office.?By describing fundamental principles of geriatric house call medicine and application to specific diseases and conditions, we hope to provide clinicians with the tools they need to provide timely, compassionate, and high-quality care for their older adult patients.?The second edition has been updated to reflect changes in the healthcare systemand approaches to caresince the publication of the first edition.