Sometime between the 1960s and the 1980s the house call all but disappeared in the U.S., and these days the idea of a doctor coming to your home might seem as quaint and outdated as beehive hair-dos and rotary telephones.

But in an age of convenience services like Uber or any of the dozens of food delivery apps out there, it might not be so crazy to revisit the idea, and Dallas-based startup Mend says that it has created “a modern day house call” for today’s connected society.

I recently spoke with Mend’s Christiana Yebra about where the idea for the “on-demand urgent healthcare” service came from. Yebra explained that she and Mend founder Jonathan Clarke met while working in the emergency room, and the experience there is what led Clarke to launch Mend earlier this year.

“We saw people come in all the time and wait hours and hours for care that really could have been done at home,” Yebra said. “They came in for some really simple things that were a quick diagnosis. Really, we saw them for a couple of minutes and then sent them on their way, and then they get hit with those huge emergency room bills.”

She added, “Jonathan saw this need for more personalized care. The whole system is very broken right now.”

Mend currently operates within a roughly 12-mile radius of the north Dallas suburb of Richardson. This covers some of the most densely populated areas of Dallas, and Yebra explained that this region also sees high numbers of people visiting urgent care centers and emergency rooms.

How it works

Users can schedule a visit from Mend through the company’s iOS app, by visiting MendAtHome.com, or by calling 469-458-MEND.

Registering with Mend requires only your contact information, payment method, and location. From there, simply choose an available appointment time and Mend will send someone out to your selected location.

Mend provides a wide range of health services, from treating allergies and ear aches to applying splints or even stitches. Their service can also write prescriptions, administer oral and injected medications, and provide doctor’s notes for school or work.

The first home visit from Mend is $50, and the cost for other visits depends on when they occur during the week and what type of service is needed. More complicated procedures, such as getting stitches, are more expensive, but the cost of a follow-up visit is included in the price. For payments, Mend accepts both credit cards and Health Savings Accounts or Flexible Spending Accounts.

While Mend bills itself as a house call service, Yebra notes that providers can also visit you at work during a lunch break or at a hotel while you are on vacation or a business trip.

Safety

Yebra said that making patients feel safe is both one of Mend’s greatest challenges and one of its highest priorities.

“Healthcare is tough. You have to get people to trust you and believe that you’re going to provide good care,” Yebra said. “That’s something that is really important to us – making sure that people trust that we’re here to do good work and not trick them into certain fees or anything.”

All of Mend’s health care providers are either Physician Assistants or Nurse Practitioners who have at least five years of experience in acute care and emergency medicine, and all go through thorough background checks prior to being hired. Physician medical directors are available for some house calls as well, and they are also available to speak by phone or Facetime during any visit from a PA or NP.

Mend’s staff members always arrive in a branded vehicle and are required to display their Mend ID badge, so patients know that the person coming into their home is a verified employee.

Privacy

One of the biggest regulatory concerns for any business involved in healthcare is maintaining strict compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability act (HIPAA), and Mend is no different.

Mend uses an encrypted cloud-based platform called Practice Fusion to store all sensitive health information, and patients can securely access that information through Practice Fusion’s website. This allows patients to download copies of Mend’s reports to give to their primary care physicians if needed.

Mend treats patients from age 2 to 64 and everything in between. Right now the service is limited to the North Dallas area only, but Yebra said Mend hopes to expand its coverage to more locations in the metroplex and eventually to other cities as well.

Yebra explained that the main purpose of Mend is to provide personalized urgent care without the long wait times or surprisingly high bills associated with a visit to the emergency room.

“We wanted people to be able to find a service that they could call, that was convenient and could come to them,” Yebra said. “Once a visit is done, we bill you for that visit and you never hear from us again.”

Images courtesy of Mend