Perfecting the Lost Art of “Doctor to Door” Medicine with Clay Hall

Thirteen years ago, Clay Hall, MSN, FNP, MBA, responded to a call in Scottsdale when he was working as a paramedic. He found an older gentleman living alone in a house with no air conditioning and eating dog food for lunch on what seemed to be one of the hottest days in record history. When Clay saw how dreadful the man’s living conditions were, it became a turning point in his career. He realized that when you are dealing with patients inside the hospital, you only get to see the tip of the iceberg. If you go into their homes, you get a clear-cut view of the patient’s life – and this is invaluable information when it comes to providing the proper medical care. That’s when he decided to move away from hospital-based setting treatments and go into home-based preventative medicine instead.

Now, Clay Hall is the Vice President of Team Select Mobile Physician Services, where their mantra is, “We do everything we can to keep patients out of the hospital and keep them safe in their homes.” Their primary focus is on Chronic Care Management, wherein they have full-time nurses dedicated to monitoring patients and keeping them on track with their prescriptions and directives. This program prevents everyday situations where patients forget to follow through with the doctor’s orders from the initial check-up, which leads them to showcase more problems on the next visit. Their goal is to guide their patients on the path to wellness.

What Makes “Doctor to Door” Medicine Special

Clay fondly remembers when he answered a call from a patient’s daughter where she was thanking him for Dr. Porter’s, one of his doctors’ acts of kindness. What happened was, Dr. Porter visited a senior home to do a check-up on the caller’s mother. When she got there, Dr. Porter found that the patient hadn’t eaten anything in days, so she decided to cook her breakfast.

The doctor ended up spending two hours with the patient and running late for her next appointment. In usual hospital settings, Dr. Porter would have been in trouble for being an hour late to her next engagement, but Clay commended her because what she did perfectly exemplified what they do and why they do it.

In hospitals, physicians are scrambling around in a hurry to see as many patients as possible. But when they are doing home preventive care, physicians focus on the quality of care they give instead of the quantity. Having the time to sit down, drink coffee, and talk comfortably in a patient’s home develops an authentic connection between doctor and patient that is just not possible inside a clinic setting.

However, we cannot disregard the fact that there will be times when the patient’s situation calls for in-hospital treatment. Having access to 24/7 monitoring, comprehensive testing, and specialists right at your fingertips is something home care cannot provide yet. Clay clarifies that home care is not a replacement for hospital care. “It’s not necessarily us versus them. It’s more of working synergistically and using the resources we have at our disposal at the appropriate capacity,” he shares with Top Doctor Magazine.

Has Covid-19 Impacted Home-Based Care At All?

Because Clay and his team are running a home-based medical care system, they are fortunate that the pandemic’s impact on them isn’t quite as severe compared to other medical services. With telemedicine at the forefront now, he was pleasantly surprised to see that many of their older patients are now picking up smartphones.

“We are moving into a tech-savvy world for sure,” he claims. His company has even partnered with QliqSoft – where patients can now fill up medical information online through an app. He thinks that this technology can increase patient compliance and enrollment, therefore enhancing patient care. However, Clay’s focus is still on getting physical hands and eyes on patients, but telemedicine is a fantastic alternative, especially with this pandemic.

A Natural and Holistic Future for Medicine

Another fun fact about Clay Hall is that he is a big advocate for regenerative medicine. Even though regenerative medicine is still quite off-label due to a lack of clinical trials, he believes that it will become a massive player in medicine one day. There are already several successful reports wherein the amniotic fluid is being used to treat orthopedic injuries – and it is only a matter of time before this style of treatment will pick up in the mainstream.

Meanwhile, primary care providers should continue to focus on sitting down with the patient and re-educating them on the wonders of proper nutrition, exercise, and sleeping habits. Clay sees that going back to the foundations of health and sticking with a wellness-based intervention will help with the general goal of primary care to reduce polypharmacy, which uses several different pills to treat one illness. He hopes to see medicine shuffle towards a more natural and holistic way of healing.

Clay Hall’s Advice for the Masses

As the world slowly starts to shift back into its pre-pandemic routine, Clay is worried that people are starting to let their guard down against COVID-19. That is why he urges the public to get the vaccine when they can, for it is a necessary act of human kindness. He says that if you don’t want to get vaccinated to protect yourself, do it to protect others around you who are more susceptible to a fatal COVID-19 reaction.

Clay hopes that everyone, especially the low-income population, will have the opportunity to get vaccinated and receive proper health care. And, to aid in making health care more accessible, Clay Hall and his team of physicians will continue to do their part in providing patients with value-based service and extensive continuous care.

If you would like to learn more about Clay Hall and Team Select Mobile Physician Services, visit the website here.