charlie wetmore

Remember when doctors making house calls was a thing?

I mean, it feels like every other TV doctor still does it. But in real life, we don't see it all that often.

Image via iStock.

During the 1930s, around 40% of all interactions between doctors and patients happened during house calls. But by 1980, it had dropped to less than 1%.

That's because with the advent of more advanced (and larger) medical equipment, it just made more sense for patients to travel to their doctors instead of the other way around. Until now.

Today, house calls are coming back in a big way.  

With more mobile medical equipment being developed and new apps designed to connect patients and doctors faster than ever, in-home health care has become much more convenient.

Enter Charlie Wetmore. He's on the front line, providing his expertise to a very important part of our community: children. And he's getting kids to pay attention to their health unlike ever before.

"One of the main things you'll notice with a house call is that the child is in a very familiar and very comfortable environment," Charlie says. "You're able to do a more thorough examination."

Check out how he's making a huge impact with one family right here:

Wetmore is a do-it-all pediatric nurse practitioner with a mission to bring health care straight to the home.

That was just what Nicole Childs, a mother of three, needed for her family. "People don't make house calls, so I took a chance," she explains. "I'm glad I did. Because now I know, if at 2 o'clock in the morning, somebody wakes up with a fever, Charlie's gonna answer my phone call."

All screenshots via Cigna.

From strep throat to diaper rash to ear infections, Charlie can treat almost anything that a young patient is going through. But for Charlie, it's ultimately all about making sure the kids stay healthy.

"Prevention is the key," he says.

That's one of the main messages Charlie preaches. "Teaching the child from a young age to pursue a healthy lifestyle," he explains, "will pay great dividends as they get older and they begin to encounter those more sophisticated elements like your BMI and your cholesterol and your blood pressure."

"It's very difficult to evoke the need to change if they didn't already have the foundation as a young child."

Granted, it can be hard to educate kids on the importance of healthy choices. That's why schools across the country are coming together to provide 54 million children with the health education they need to adopt healthy behaviors and improve their quality of life.

In fact, Charlie has the perfect medium to get that same message across with his own patients: himself.

Charlie always makes sure he's setting a great example with his own health.

"If you're healthy, it's a little easier to project that image and give those messages out," he says. "So I try to live a healthy lifestyle. I know my [health] numbers."

And for any person — young or old — that's an important way to go if you're just starting to pay attention to preventive care. Knowing your four health numbers — blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and body mass index (BMI) — can be the difference-maker you need.

Plus, if you need any additional assistance down the line, Cigna offers customers a 24-hour health information line, with nurses available to answer your health-related questions and give you information on when and where you should get treatment, as well as telehealth programs ready to connect you with a board-certified doctor via secure video chat or phone. For example, the Cigna Telehealth Connection connects customers to doctors who can help them get the care they need, including many prescriptions, for a variety of conditions day or night from wherever they are.

So whether you still go to the doctor's office or prefer a home visit, what matters is you're taking control of your health and your family's.

That's the beauty of house calls making a comeback: It's giving more people more options than ever to find the solution that works perfectly for them. But if making the trip to your doctor is still the best way for you, that's awesome too!

Learn more about how to take control of your health at Cigna.com/TakeControl.