Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Below you will find in a nutshell answers to questions frequently asked by our patients.
What makes the Alpha Doctors unique: We come to your home, your workplace, or your hotel room for physical examinations and therapy. You can call us not only in emergencies, but whenever you are suffering from any kind of medical symptoms. After we receive your phone call, one of our physicians will call on you as quickly as possible. In most cases, he will also carry with him the appropriate medication for your specific needs.
Moreover, we offer additional medical services performed directly on site at your home: routine health check-ups, home pain relief therapy, review of your medication, palliative medical services, and individual emergency training.
Leaving your home when you are feeling weak and frail is exhausting and inconvenient. In many cases, this may even cause a serious delay in your recovery. Having the doctor call on you at your home saves you from having to make a trip to the doctor’s medical practice. Being allowed to stay in your familiar home surroundings can promote swift recuperation. This is where our home medical service is a real advantage.
Thanks to the advances of modern medicine, we can perform a great many treatments directly at your home, at your workplace, or in your hotel room. This does not mean that the quality of therapy is in any way inferior. Even essential diagnostic technology such as ECG and ultrasound devices are included in the standard equipment our physicians always carry with them.
You can contact the Alpha Doctors‘ Dispatch Centre twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Our doctors are on duty for you even early in the morning and during the night – outside the normal consulting hours of a medical practice. They even make house calls on weekends and public holidays.
The Alpha private healthcare house call and emergency medical service is represented in several different areas of Germany. For an overview, please read here or go back to the homepage of this website.
The overview on our homepage is a good starting point. Please first select your area. The corresponding map will show you roughly in which area the Alpha Doctors offer their house call services. Then you can simply give us a call. Our Dispatch Centre will confirm whether or not one of our physicians can visit you at home.
One of the Alpha Doctors will call on you right at your home. We are equally happy to visit you at your workplace or, if you happen to be traveling, in your hotel room. Where you wish to be examined and treated is entirely up to you.
We basically offer treatment for all kinds of complaints that are accompanied by physical symptoms. The severity of the illness is irrelevant: We can dispatch a doctor to check on what may initially appear to be only “minor” symptoms such as a common cold, or if you are suffering from serious health problems. Should your condition be life-threatening, however, we recommend that you immediately call the paramedics under the general emergency service number 112. They can arrive on site faster than anyone else.
Dental treatments are not included in our range of medical services. If you have dental problems, please contact a dentist in your vicinity or call the dental emergency service.
A “medical emergency” is defined as a serious disruption of body functions. In such an event the patient requires medical attention as quickly as possible. Our physicians will, of course, come to your home in this case, provided your life is not in acute danger.
If you feel your symptoms are life-threatening, please phone the paramedics immediately under the general emergency number 112. They are likely to arrive on site faster.
If you are afraid you are suffering life-threatening symptoms, please call the paramedics without delay under the general emergency number 112. They are likely to arrive on site faster. If necessary, they will arrange for immediate transportation to a hospital.
Of course, we also examine children. Small patients often find it especially exhausting to sit in full waiting rooms or overcrowded A&E units. This is a situation we can help to avoid by offering medical house calls. Wherever possible, we will try to dispatch a paediatrics specialist to your home.
As far as our patients are concerned, there are no restrictions: We examine individuals of all ages, with or without pre-existing conditions. We are also happy to call on you at home if you are still recuperating after surgery or if you are otherwise limited in your mobility. National and international hotel guests are also among our patients.
As a rule, and in particular in emergencies, the principle of free choice of medical practitioner is always applicable: Every patient is entitled to choose which doctor he wishes to consult for treatment of his symptoms – and of course this also encompasses the physicians at Alpha Doctors.
As far as the costs for our house calls are concerned, there are differences between patients with private healthcare insurance and self-paying patients or patients with statutory healthcare insurance. For more information, please read here.
Equipped with their own vehicles, our doctors are highly mobile. They operate in the field exclusively for our patients. After your call has been received, our Dispatch Centre will identify a suitable specialist from our team. He or she will proceed to your home as quickly as possible. Sometimes they can be with you in less than half an hour, in most cases however after a few hours at the latest. Unfortunately, we cannot predict how many emergency calls are received at a particular time. It is therefore not possible to give a specific, generally valid time frame.
All our physicians are legally qualified to practice medicine and have excellent medical skills. They are especially experienced in dealing with emergencies and on-site medical treatment. These qualifications are enhanced by our training programmes, which are designed to systematically impart the special skills required.
We can also send out qualified specialists. The Alpha Doctor team currently includes specialists for General Medicine, Internal Medicine, Paediatrics, Ear, Nose, and Throat Medicine (ENT), Urology, Orthopaedics, Anaesthesiology, and Pain Relief Therapy.
All our physicians speak German and English. Many are also fluent in other languages. If you prefer to communicate in a particular language, please inform our Dispatch Centre accordingly when you call. We will try to take your wishes into consideration when selecting the physician.
Our doctors always carry a limited stock emergency drugs for acute therapy that are frequently required. For other medication, you will be issued a prescription. In this case, a relative for example can collect your medication at a pharmacy or emergency chemist’s.
Patients who are a member of a private healthcare insurance will generally be reimbursed by their insurance provider for any costs incurred for our services.
This does not apply to patients with statutory healthcare insurance: The health insurance companies generally do not reimburse the costs for medical house calls. Nonetheless, we are still happy to pay you a house call when you are ill. As part of our GKV-180 Programme, a one-off house call is available for a lump sum of merely 180 Euros. Should follow-up therapy or additional examinations be necessary, our physician will discuss the further course of action with you.
If you have private healthcare insurance, your insurance provider will generally reimburse you for the costs of our house call. If in doubt, please check the terms and conditions of your health insurance policy or contact your insurance provider for information.
Of course, one of our physicians will also be happy to make a house call to you if you have statutory healthcare insurance. However, the statutory healthcare insurance providers do not reimburse you for house call costs. Therefore, you, the patient, will have to pay for the house call yourself. For this reason, we have set up our fair GKV-180 rate: A one-off house call costs maximal 180 Euros. Should further medical action involving additional costs prove to be necessary, our physician will discuss this with you beforehand.