Primary care at home in the Central West End.

House call primary care in the Central West End

Many people in the Central West End live in apartments, some of them alone and without a car. Specialists may be close by, but a primary care office that knows the whole picture can be harder to keep up with, especially after a hospital stay when several doctors have each changed something. In-home primary care follow-up gives one clinician a chance to sit down with the patient in their own apartment, go through medications bottle by bottle, and check on ongoing conditions. Gateway shares the visit notes with the specialists involved.

Housing in the Central West End stacks up as much as it spreads out. There are doorman towers along Lindell Boulevard and Kingshighway, brick walk-ups and converted mansions on the side streets, newer apartment buildings near the medical campus, and senior apartments, assisted living and skilled nursing within the neighborhood or a short distance away. Gateway arranges partner clinician visits in all of them. For secured buildings we ask ahead about the front desk, entry codes and visitor parking. For facilities we coordinate with the nursing team on timing and orders.

This page is part of Gateway's guide to primary care in St. Louis, which covers house calls, wellness visits and chronic care across the region.

What the clinician can look at

A good share of primary care happens after the clinician leaves. A blood test has to be drawn, an imaging appointment booked, a specialist’s report sent back and read. When the treating clinician writes an order, Gateway follows it through and keeps the results moving to the people who need them. Depending on where you live, some tests can be arranged at home. Others mean a trip, and we can help with lab and imaging coordination and transportation arrangements.

The visits themselves cover what you would expect from a primary care office: long-term conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, a full medication review, follow-up after a hospital stay and a yearly wellness visit.

People who benefit most

Not everyone who calls us has a doctor. Some adults in the Central West End lost theirs when a practice closed or a physician retired. Others have been in and out of hospitals and rehab and have not had a regular visit in a long time, so nobody is watching the whole picture or renewing prescriptions on schedule. Gateway can help connect you with a partner practice that makes home visits. The page on finding a primary care clinician explains how.

Home visits are also arranged for people who have a doctor but cannot get to the office, including adults with limited mobility, people healing from a wound or an operation, and assisted living residents.

How primary care supports wound healing

Dressings are only part of what heals a wound. Primary care follow-up looks after the conditions that shape healing:

• Blood sugar, when diabetes is involved
• Circulation and swelling in the legs
• Nutrition and hydration
• Medications that affect skin, bleeding or healing
• Mobility, pressure and fall risk

When Gateway coordinates both kinds of care, information moves in both directions. Wound measurements, new symptoms, lab results and medication changes are shared between the wound care and primary care clinicians, with your permission. See primary care and wound care together.

Wound care in the Central West End →

Where visits take place

Apartment living adds a few practical details to a home visit. When you call about primary care in the Central West End, tell us about the building: a buzzer or door code, a front desk, where visitors can park, whether there is an elevator. In a senior apartment building, let us know if a service coordinator or building nurse should be told about the visit.

The same arrangements apply in single-family homes, condos and a relative’s house where you are staying for a while. For residents of assisted living, memory care or a skilled nursing facility, we coordinate the visit time with the staff there.

Keeping your current physician involved

Keeping your own physician and having visits at home can go together. If you have a doctor you trust, tell us, and with your permission the visiting clinician’s notes and questions go to that office. The two clinicians then settle the practical split: who renews prescriptions, who orders tests, who signs forms, who makes specialist referrals. Ask to hear that split in plain terms early on. If you have no physician, the treating practice that visits you takes on those jobs, and Gateway keeps the records and orders organized either way.

Getting started in the Central West End

Before you call 314-325-0126 about primary care in the Central West End, it helps to have a few things nearby:

• The address where visits would take place, and the type of residence
• Insurance cards
• A list of current medications, or the bottles themselves
• The name of any doctor or specialist already involved
• Dates of recent hospital or rehab stays
• A phone number where we can reach you, and the person we should talk to

Nothing on this list is required to make the call. If you are missing something, we can work it out with you afterward.

• County: City of St. Louis, Missouri (an independent city)
• ZIP codes: 63108, 63110
• Nearby hospitals: Barnes-Jewish Hospital; SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital; SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond Heights (not affiliated with Gateway)
• Nearby communities: St. Louis City, Downtown St. Louis, University City, Clayton and Central County, North St. Louis, South St. Louis
• Care settings: Private homes, skilled nursing, assisted living, memory care and rehabilitation

Coverage questions

You can ask Gateway about Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and commercial insurance when you call. We cannot tell you over the phone that a visit is a covered benefit, because that depends on three things: the treating practice that would see you, the details of your plan and the care the clinician finds you need. What we can do is tell you which practice would be involved, so you can confirm with your plan before the first visit. The insurance page lists questions worth asking.

Common questions

Related pages

• Central West End
• Primary care
• In-home primary care
• Primary care and wound care together
• Primary care at home
• Primary care at home
• Primary care at home