UAB House Calls Program Reduces Number Of ER Visits

By Holly Gainer

A nurse takes 74-year-old Jo Smith’s temperature, measures her blood pressure and draws blood while a doctor conducts a checkup and reviews her vitals. All of this takes place while Smith sits at a kitchen table in her daughter’s Gardendale, Alabama, home. While this seems like a routine doctor’s visit, it is a life-changer for Smith and her family.

Smith suffered a stroke in June 2016, leaving her paralyzed on the right side of her body. She can no longer walk, making it nearly impossible for her daughter to take her to doctor’s appointments on her own.

“It’s really difficult to move her in and out of the house,” said Michelle Johnson, Smith’s daughter, who is a researcher in the Molecular and Cellular Pathology Department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Her wheelchair is heavy, and it is difficult to get it up our portable ramp and into the car. I can barely do it by myself. In fact, I threw out my back trying to move her when she first moved in with us.”The visit is part of UAB’s House Calls program run out of UAB’s Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Care, through which members of an interdisciplinary team including a physician, nurse practitioner, medical assistant and social worker travel to the homes of patients who cannot travel to their doctor’s office for appointments.

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