Physician, Heal Thyself...

Joe Guy · Post by **Joe Guy** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 3:02 am

Just lately I've started hearing a commercial on the radio for heal.com. They advertise that you can have a doctor come to your home and even your office between the hours of 8am - 8pm any day, holidays included. You can use your health insurance to pay, and if you don't have it, it's only $99.00. (I wonder if they would pick up a pizza and a six pack on their way over)

Here's the part that got me wondering: One of the lines in the ad is, "heal.com was created by a physician after taking her child to a doctor and having to wait 8 hours, only to find out her child was okay."

What kind of doctor couldn't figure that out on her own? Do I want to call for help when the head physician can't even figure out that her own kid is okay? My mother knew better than that doctor. She would say, "You don't need a doctor for a temperature of 103. Drink some water, have a cough drop and sleep it off. That'll teach you not to wear your jacket, dumbshit!!" or " "So what if you caught your hand in a hay baler and it completely ripped off three finger nails and smashed your hand? They'll grow back and you have another hand, ya big crybaby!!"

Anyway, I just thought I'd see if anyone else has thoughts on the subject. Is this business going to flop or will Dr Clueless become a Billionaire?.....

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 3:13 am

There are a lot of symptoms in children that might be nothing or could be something serious, and that require labs or some other diagnostic tool to determine which. No physician should be treating his/her own child, which means that yes, ordering the requisite tests would require seeing another doctor.

Joe Guy · Post by **Joe Guy** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 3:36 am

Of course, you're mostly right, Scooter. She needed to see another doctor but not the one that made her wait 8 hours. And what would a doctor coming to her house be able to do that she couldn't have done? Will the rolling doctors have labs & lab workers in their cars? Will they have an assistant who is an X-Ray technician with his own equipment? Will they tow an MRI machine?

Also, your answer was too sensible and right to the point. Do people intentionally invite you to be 5 hours late to parties in order to make people bored so they will leave?....

MajGenl.Meade · Post by **MajGenl.Meade** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 6:06 am

I was more concerned that the parent-doctor seemed less worried about the wait and more unhappy that after 8 hours there was NOTHING WRONG with the child!

Typical of the modern generation. Continual disappointment

oldr_n_wsr · Post by **oldr_n_wsr** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:06 pm

Doctors making house calls!?!?!?
What once was old is now new again.

RayThom · Post by **RayThom** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:08 pm

Hmm, house calls -- an interesting concept.

oldr_n_wsr · Post by **oldr_n_wsr** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:15 pm

You think they still make those little black "doctors bags" anymore?

Bicycle Bill · Post by **Bicycle Bill** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 4:36 pm

oldr_n_wsr wrote:You think they still make those little black "doctors bags" anymore?

They're called "Gladstone bags" (named for W.E. Gladstone, 4-time PM of the UK) — a rigid-framed portmanteau bag that opens into two equal-sized separate compartments by means of a hinged opening and, when open, remains standing upright.
And yes, they still make them, although nowadays they're larger and mostly meant for traveling as a carry-on piece.

-"BB"-

oldr_n_wsr · Post by **oldr_n_wsr** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 6:02 pm

Why thank you BB.
I am thinking of getting one as a carry around tool bag. i don't really like the canvas ones they have.
I have been using an old "hard" suitcase, but it's over 30 years old and I have repaired it so many times I think its more "repair" than suitcase.

It's nice that you lay it down, open and can find everything you need without removing too many items.
i check garage sales but so far, nothing.

rubato · Post by **rubato** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:12 pm

It sounds a little under priced to be viable. But there are always a tranche of physicians who, due to age and declining abilities or because they have their licensure in jeopardy who will take marginal employment and reduced income. If you've gone to a clinic that does employment physicals you have seen them.

I would guess that it can only work in an area with dense population so that time wasted in transit is minimized. Also they will need some way of getting samples to a lab for testing.

Yrs,
Rubato

My dad did house calls before he took his residency in pathology. Early 1960s.

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