…this time from an Emergency Medicine perspective:
ResortMed now employs eight Vail-area doctors and four more in the Aspen area, and their 24/7 service hits the road in three specialized Jeeps. Far from the classical house-call doctor’s black bag, these Jeeps come armed with everything an emergency doctor needs, including IV fluids, meds, oxygen and even a hyperbaric chamber, when necessary.
“We can distinguish between what is routine and what is truly an emergency – with our equipment and training, chances are good we can handle 99 percent of problems in a hotel room or home,” Davis said. “It’s a dramatic shift when you think about it. A guest comes to the valley, and they spend a lot money to be in a resort property. The idea of replacing those moments with a hospital stay or time in a waiting room is not good. This is a good substitution. The idea of watching TV in their comfortable hotel room when the doctor comes to them became very appealing once guests became aware that the service exists.”
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It’s written by one of their entertainment reporters, which (I suppose) explains all the name dropping, though I’d have thought discretion would be the better part of valor in such a business.
Nice idea. I would not have chosen a Jeep for such things, but whatever floats your chicken, I guess. A Toyota would be much more reliable.
Hmm…maybe a presumptuous “know-it-all” email is in order.
Ah….the lifestyles of the rich and famous – we bring the emergency room to you. So if you get shot (maybe rich folks don’t get shot) or have a messy accident who cleans up the hotel room afterwords? So these doctors are saying that they can do a thoracotomy, a gastric lavage, put someone on a vent in a hotel room? Hard to believe. What happens after they stablize them, do they stay in the room with them and care for them? Do these doctors have nurses or paramedics with them to do those dirty little jobs docs don’t want to do? If so where can I apply?
Hell yeah, I’d like to be that doc’s nurse, too. I’ve already got the Jeep….
I market a portable fabric hyperbaric chamber with an FDA approved compressor that is certified to deliver breathing grade air. It comes in the large size and the small size 27 inches diameter ideal for a vehicle. It is 8 feet long, but it could be ordered shorter. It is long so that it can accomodate a juvenile patient and a tender. Fabric hyperbaric chambers have been on the market for over 20 years. They are popular in Nepal for altitude sickness. Now they are popular for high performance athletic conditioning.
A personal hyperbaric chamber 27 inches in diameter with a suitable compressor would be great for a Doc in a Jeep.
I notice the jeeps don’t come with an ER nurse attached. Who is going to implement the orders, place the NG, put in the IV, bag the patient, defibrillate the patient…
I’ve only worked with one doctor who could do everything himself and we even told him that if he brought the patient back, he had to fill out the nursing triage area.
He did!! : D
I don’t understand why concierge medicine has to be constantly linked to “life styles of the rich and famous” analogies. Elitist luxury medicine. In fact, concierge care should be equated to good ideal medicine. The practice I’m designing charges on the low end of the retainer range, as are most concierge practices. I hardly think that $100 a month for a dedicated PCP constitutes a poor value. In fact, for my patient’s it carries a pretty high return on investment, much better than other things they spend $100 a month on.
~ConciergeDoc