the checklist
The week after a hospital stay, from the caregiver's side
Most of the decisions that shape the first seven days at home get made in the last two days in hospital, while somebody is telling you the discharge is tomorrow. Medicare's own checklist says the caregiver is a member of the planning team. Use that. This page is the caregiver's reading of the six logistics stops this desk already publishes, not a second medical list and not a ranking.
The stops, each cited to a Medicare or National Institute on Aging document, are on Sort the first week home before they leave the hospital. Medicare's discharge checklist includes items on medications and on complications to watch for. Those lines belong to the hospital staff and your parent's doctor. This desk does not repeat them, and this page does not either. The companion guide written for the discharge moment is After the Hospital STL.
still in the building
Get three pieces of paper in your hand before anyone packs a bag
Ask for the discharge planner, social worker or nurse by role. Medicare's Your Discharge Planning Checklist (CMS product 11376, December 2025) tells you to ask where care will be after discharge, whether you have options such as home health, whether equipment is needed and who arranges delivery, and to ask for written discharge instructions you can read. For you, it says to talk to staff about getting the help you need before discharge, and to write down the name and phone number of a person you can call with questions.
Read the checklist's list of activities out loud and circle what your parent will need help with: bathing, dressing, using the bathroom, climbing stairs; cooking, food shopping, house cleaning, paying bills; driving to appointments, picking up prescriptions. That circle is your first week. It is also the list you walk the house against, not a memory of how the house used to work. The room by room checklist is the tool. Do it before the walker is delivered to the ward, so it can be delivered to the house instead.
If your parent is on Medicare, ask by name for the notice called An Important Message from Medicare. Medicare says you should get it "within 2 days of your admission and prior to your discharge." If you do not have it, the discharge checklist says plainly: "If you don't get a notice, ask for it." It sets out the right to a fast appeal if you think the discharge is too soon. The deadline is no later than the day of the scheduled discharge. Whether to appeal is not a question this page can answer. Whether you have the notice is, and the answer should be yes before the bag is packed. Source: Medicare, Fast appeals.
two kinds of help
Separate home health from help at home while you still have a planner in the room
In the first week you may need both. Get the clinical visits and the non-medical hours on separate lines, with the payer named on each. Equipment needs an order under Medicare Part B for medically necessary DME used in the home. Ask who is writing the order, who the supplier is, and whether the walker arrives at the house before your parent does. Source: Medicare, Durable medical equipment coverage.
the seven days
Book meals and rides while the hospital phones are still answered
The first follow-up appointment is usually inside the week, and the fridge is usually empty. Call the Area Agency on Aging that covers the address before you leave the building. The NIA's advice for arranging services at home starts with the Eldercare Locator, eldercare.acl.gov, 800-677-1116. In this region that resolves to one of three agencies. Their numbers are on the reference page. Ask about home delivered meals, the ride to the follow-up, and how far ahead a booking has to be made. Source: NIA, Services for Older Adults Living at Home, content reviewed October 12, 2023.
Then split the seven days the way the NIA splits the long haul. Name one primary caregiver. Split by task, not by day: who does meals, who does the ride, who does the pharmacy, who sits the first night. Keep one notebook with the discharge instructions and the who-to-call list in the front. Check in at the end of the week. Source: NIA, Sharing Caregiving Responsibilities.
By day seven you will know which circled tasks the family can carry. If the Area Agency on Aging has a wait for the service that would fill the gap, paid help at home is the bridge. Missouri does not license that category. Use the hiring questions with the wait time written down. If the week has landed on one person, that is the shape the survey already counts: in 2021, 33.6 percent of Missouri's older caregivers averaged 20 or more hours a week, Illinois 39.9 percent. When the hours themselves are the problem, Burned Out Daughter is the page for that. This page stays with the six stops.
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