STONINGTON, Conn. — For 87-year-old Bob Livermore and 88-year-old Malcolm Wheeler, having “Dr. Mike” come to their apartments in the StoneRidge Retirement Community has made the infirmities of old age easier to bear.
“The last thing you want to do when you’re sick is get out of bed and get in a car and go to a doctor’s office,” said Livermore, as he settled in his favorite living room chair one recent afternoon for a checkup. “When Mike came along, it was perfect. It was a blessing.”
A retired engineer, Livermore signed on with Dr. Michael Feltes’ geriatric practice over a year ago, after his wife, Anne, who has since passed away, became ill and wanted to spend her last days in their apartment, rather than a nursing home. Since then, Feltes and his nurse practitioner, Karen Terwilliger, have cared for Livermore after surgery for a cancerous leg tumor and a recent bout with pneumonia.
“I love the guy,” said Livermore.
For Wheeler, who uses a walker, Feltes’ regular visits keep him from becoming isolated, enabling him to stay active in the Stoneridge choir and enjoy meals in the community dining room with his friends.
“I can live very comfortably with a little help,” said Wheeler, a retired IBM executive. “I’ve been in the hospital a lot, but the ease of getting back to independent living has improved a lot because of having the nurse and doctor available to me. When I have to go out and go to the doctor, it’s a big deal. Now, when I have an emergency, Karen is here. For $150 a month, it’s a bargain.”
That’s the fee Feltes charges the 120 patients — most of them in their 80s and 90s — who’ve signed up thus far for the “concierge” medical services he’s been providing in their homes for the last 18 months. His concierge patients get around-the-clock access to him and Terwilliger for house calls for routine and emergency medical services, with Medicare and private insurance covering most of the cost of the care but the $150 fee paid out-of-pocket. The fee pays for itself, Feltes and his patients believe, in avoiding costly emergency room visits and hospital stays.
“When an 86-year-old woman falls in her apartment, I can come to her that day and evaluate her and do an assessment that’s a good predictor of whether she has a broken bone,” said Feltes, who has provided medical care at local nursing homes for the last 20 years. “I can call mobile X-ray and ultrasound services and even do IVs in the home. This is a creative new practice design.”
The kind of care Livermore and Wheeler are receiving is something the region needs more of, according to a group of local residents including Feltes — one of the region’s few geriatricians — who incorporated as the Mystic Geriatrics Institute a year ago, six months after beginning informal discussions. Last month, the group obtained its nonprofit status and will host its first major event May 6, a “Seniors Strong Summit 2017” at the Mystic Marriott.
