House calls
Aotea Pathology provides a home visit phlebotomy service to housebound patients or where there is a clinical need. If your patient requires a house call, please contact (04) 381 5900 and select Option 3.
Home visits are available Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays, between 8.00am and 5.00pm.
Guidelines for house calls
- The request for a phlebotomy home visit must be made by the referring medical practitioner or their authorised representative (e.g. a senior practice nurse).
- The patient is housebound or has seriously impaired mobility due to a medical condition.
- The patient is physically or mentally impaired and has no support person to transport them to our collection rooms.
- We will accept requests for a house call up to a maximum of 2 weeks in advance.
Requests for a weekend home visit must be approved by an Aotea pathologist. Home visits are not made after hours unless authorised by a pathologist. The patient’s doctor must also be present.
House call management
Geographical regions
Routine visits are grouped into geographical areas and allocated certain days of the week.
Visits outside scheduled days will be made for urgent requests where these are clinically indicated. They must be confirmed as urgent by the requesting doctor. Troponin and D-Dimer tests will be made as soon as possible. Other tests will be prioritised following discussion with the requesting doctor/practice nurse.
Rest homes
Rest homes are allocated certain days of the week for routine Domiciliary visits in consultation with rest home staff. Extra visits may be possible if tests are required urgently. Aotea Pathology will ask the requesting medical practitioner or practice nurse to confirm the urgent status of the request.
When Aotea Pathology staff visit patients at rest homes, we request that a staff member is available to support the phlebotomists. This assists with patient identification and for the safety of both the residents and our staff members.
In order to help us prioritise visits, please inform our staff of any special requirements for a patient (e.g. fasting patients or medication being withheld). Ensure the patient is also made aware of these requirements.
Aotea Pathology can indicate if visits will be morning or afternoon. Urgent visits impact on the times of the scheduled routine visits and so the provision of exact times is problematic.
Discontinuation of house calls
Aotea Pathology will not continue to visit patients who are not home repeatedly at the time of visit or who have changes in their circumstances enabling them to visit a collection centre.
Patients who are not home at the time of the visit will be left a calling card and advised to contact their medical practitioner for further advice.
Aotea Pathology will notify the referring practitioner (or practice nurse) where a patient’s situation no longer appears to meet home visit criteria.
Maintaining the house visit service
To maintain a free service, we need your help to ensure it is not misused or abused. Our goal is to manage the service to ensure it continues to be available for patients needing it.
Aotea Pathology may decide to establish a charge where the service is used outside of the scope of District Health Board funding -- for example, house-calls to private hospitals and/or care facilities on weekends and public holidays.
