2nd NU12 Paper – Topic #6 New Business Ideas:
M.D. HOUSE CALLS and The Traveling Clinic
Submitted by:
Pseudonym: thebluetigerMD
January 10, 2013
MBAH – 10B
Entrepreneurship – Class H04
Submitted to: Prof. Jorge Saguinsin
Gone are the days when physicians made house calls. Decades ago, doctors were commonly called upon to visit sick patients at home where consultation, examination and treatment were made in the comfort of the patients' own home. Although there are a few doctors who still probably visit sick patients at home, these patients are usually close friends or relatives and not ordinary patients.
However, recent years have shown that the hectic clinic and hospital schedules of most physicians prevent them from making house calls. And the severe and heavy traffic situation around the metropolis would definitely discourage a doctor to visit a patient whose house is probably at the other end of EDSA and for him to make the return trip to his clinic. Furthermore, if a doctor does make house calls in this situation, the physician would have to add the cost of travel, gasoline, time spent and the lost opportunity cost (cost of other patients he might have seen) to the cost of the house call, which would make the fee considerably high for ordinary patients. These are probably just some of the reasons why doctors would usually prefer that patients would just come to their clinics at specified days and times.
So the puzzle to solve is, how can we make a cost-efficient way of making house calls? How do we minimize the cost of travel and opportunity cost, and still reach patients and give them medical attention in the comfort of their own homes?
The compromise solution maybe the creation of a traveling clinic. The traveling clinic can be a van that is set-up with a full clinic inside, complete with consultation table, chairs, negatoscope (for x-ray viewing), and other medical instruments and devices, wash area, etc. The doctor will create a daily consultation "route-line", where he/ she will specifically stay in a particular area at a given time at a given day. So in a day, the clinic can stay around 2-3 hours each in three different areas. Clinic schedules will be given to the localities so the community will know when the traveling clinic is in their vicinity.
This scheme will save the doctor from a lot of expenses, from clinic space rentals, duplication of equipment (he just needs one set of equipment because he can bring it in the traveling clinic) and others. Also, this will increase the potential patient-base of the physician because he/ she will not be restricted to one particular area alone.
Once in their vicinity, patients can go to the traveling clinic for consultation. However, those who are severely sick can ask the doctor to give them a house call, and since the patient's home is just near the traveling clinic, it wouldn't be much of a hassle for the doctor to make the house call.
Traveling Clinic Concept: 4
MELQUECEDES T. DE GUZMAN, JR. MD, FPSNM, CCD, CSPSH
MEDICAL SPECIALIST III
TRAINING AND RESEARCH OFFICE
JOSE R. REYES MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER
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