An elderly dementia patient in hospice care at Market Square Health Care Center in South Paris was left without a doctor when hers retired.

Bucking the primary care shortage, Memory Care Director Penny Graham found an immediate solution — Dr. John Matulis of Second Mountain Internal Medicine, whose practice is exclusively focused on house calls.

“Our resident’s doctor retired, which we see more and more of,” Graham said. “She lost her doctor. Even if we found a new primary care physician, we wouldn’t be able to get her to a new office without transporting her, and she is not a transportation candidate.”

Matulis, of Buckfield, opened his practice late last year. He is the primary care physician for four Market Square patients.

He only sees patients where they reside — whether in a nursing facility or at a home — and who are insured through traditional Medicare.

It was a deliberate decision to serve Medicare patients, Matulis said.

“Medicare wants primary care to survive,” he said.

“You learn about patients when you walk into their homes,” he said. “What do they have for social support? How are they set up for mobility, for their quality of life? In their own environment, you really get to know them and better understand their needs.”

Home care benefits more than the patient. Matulis said it lessens the burden on their families and caregivers as well.

“Getting out is taxing. There is the worry of falling. Their caregivers lose days at work. Appointments are rushed,” he said.

Matulis and his family moved to Maine last year from Rochester, Minnesota, where he worked at the Mayo Clinic and first tested the concept of providing at-home care.

Following COVID-19, he and his wife, Katie, began considering what they wanted their next chapter to look like. For Katie, a return to her home state meant she could be involved in her family’s business, Greenwood Orchards in Turner, and their young children would grow up among family.

Matulis said he was motivated to start his new venture after reading “The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life” by David Brooks, which was published in 2019.

“Your first chapter is for personal achievement and mastery of skills,” Matulis said. “The second is more external with a service focus. Healthcare has gaps and holes … how can I affect change?”

In addition to inspiring Matulis and his family’s eastward move, the book also became the namesake of his new private practice: Second Mountain Internal Medicine. 

For years, Maine healthcare has tipped toward consolidation within large practices and multinetwork systems.

Some healthcare providers have sought change in healthcare by moving toward a model based on a membership fee that allows unlimited doctor access.

Matulis said aside from a colleague in Portland, a nurse practitioner, he is unaware of other providers going back to the house-call method of patient care.

“Primary care is under a lot of stress in most places,” Graham said, adding that she had seen residents be placed on waiting lists as long as two years. 

“This is a gift I never expected,” Market Square resident Dean Bennett, 91, said during an interview at his two-room suite in the memory care wing. 

Matulis became the primary care physician for Bennett and his 88-year-old wife, Sheila, when they moved to Market Square late last year. Previously, they were at assisted living facilities in Hallowell and Falmouth.

As it became clear that Sheila’s health required a more secure living space, they decided on Market Square, where Dean Bennett’s mother resided in her later years and where they have family close by. 

“It has given me peace of mind to be able to access medical care,” Bennett said. “I’ve had to surrender my driver’s license, but with a doctor we can see here, it’s eliminated transportation barriers for us.”

Graham calls Matulis on behalf of patients, as needed, but Bennett also communicates with him directly, such as when he needed his hearing aids adjusted.

The couple’s blended family of adult children are also involved in their parents’ doctor-patient relationships and care.

An initial family consultation is the first step for Matulis’ patient enrollment — a discussion that helps determine if at-home primary care is the proper fit. Then he visits the person in their environment to assess their needs and establish a care plan.

“Dr. Matulis is just extremely accessible,” Graham said. “If I need something, I can reach him multiple different ways with a very quick response, and he comes here. Are there any other doctors that do that?”

To learn more about Second Mountain Internal Medicine, go to secondmountaininternalmedicine.com.