While I recommend you read our full story of Mom’s recovery here, to follow is a shorter summary of our successful home care experience and what it cost.
I am Cooperative Home Care’s Vice President. Our experience was this: Mom was in the hospital/skilled rehab for 26 days following a fall and subsequent hip replacement; once home, over the next 21 days she needed caregiver help as follows:
Week one at home: full-time assistance, including at night if she needed to use the bathroom (we flexed my schedule temporarily and added sibling help for evenings/weekend shifts).
Weeks two and three: part-time assistance (everything was the same except we began leaving her for longer periods of time as she established her routines and regained strength); we always aim to add family and/or caregiver help on days when home health is not coming, to use our resources as wisely as possible.
End of week three: hip restrictions lifted! Continue pushing safely for more independence, now that movement isn’t restricted.
Week four to present: two to three, 2-hour visits per week to encourage home exercises, movement and endurance (caregiver costs $200-$300/week).
Ideally Mom’s extra care will continue declining to zero. Another positive is, having added caregivers, we now have established resources for respite help (if we are traveling) or if Mom’s needs suddenly change. This is reassuring!
Our family was temporarily able to be Mom’s caregivers. Had we enlisted caregiver help upon discharge home for weeks one through three I’d estimate $2640 in out-of-pocket costs based on Cooperative Home Care’s Value Pricing. As noted above, our ongoing costs are currently $200-$300 per week but we plan to keep reducing care if possible. Caregiver costs are significant, but often they can also be temporary. We all try to stay focused on Mom’s progress; the temporary investment was worthwhile for our family.
Cooperative offers both home health and caregiver services. We also provide guidance for your specific situation; we will work with you to make home care as affordable as possible. Cooperative 360 is our Full Circle Care model where we qualify you for every type of home care before you pay out-of-pocket.
