It is not uncommon for papers on house call s or home-based medical care, in both the lay and academic literature, to begin with an image of a doctor, black bag in hand (perhaps even driving a horse-drawn carriage), on her way to deliver care to a sick patient in need. Such images are usually accompanied by prose extolling the quaint and archaic nature of the house call and how it has not disappeared entirely from medical practice, in the face of a medical system that has evolved into a high-technology-focused juggernaut.

Such an image also evokes some of the best aspects of the practice of medicine. We are inspired by the dedication of a physician who cares enough about her patients to accommodate their convenience by seeing them in their homes. We visualize the sick patient comfortable at home, happy to have avoided the challenge and trauma of visiting the doctor’s office, an urgent care center, or a hospital emergency department.

The clinicians making these visits know that seeing their patients at home will provide important information that may not be discernible in the office. Imagine the patient who has experienced multiple recent hospitalizations for recurrent heart failure. The house call reveals a second-floor bathroom and a kitchen stocked with sodium-rich canned and frozen foods that a friend buys for her, because she cannot go to the supermarket herself. Only when the clinician asks about her ability to climb the stairs does the patient admit that she often “can’t make it in time,” so she only takes her diuretic when she goes upstairs for the evening. The clinician now proposes useful solutions for this complex set of medical, functional, and social problems contributing to the patient’s recurrent hospitalizations.

By taking medical care directly to the place where the patient spends the most time, home-based medical care exemplifies patient-centered care. At home, the physician easily assesses the patient’s function in her own environment and helps address barriers to care and social determinants of health. Coming to see the patient at home is an unspoken endorsement of the patient’s importance and helps to build a level of trust and communication that may be difficult to create in a typical office visit [1].