When you compare non-medical caregiver companies, the rate is the easiest number to find and the least useful one on its own. What decides whether your week holds together is what happens on the day the usual caregiver is sick, late, or has a family emergency. Ask about that first.
Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.
The replacement question
Ask how the company covers a missed shift. Get the answer in plain terms. Does it call a second caregiver it has already met your parent with, or does it send whoever is free? How much notice does it give you when a replacement is arranged? If the replacement is someone new, ask whether the company has a way for you to see that person's name before the shift starts, and whether they will have the care notes you wrote.
Write down the answer you hear. If the answer changes when you ask it a second time, that is information too.
The continuity question
Ask how often the same person comes back. Some companies send a small group of familiar caregivers. Others rotate people through every week. Neither is wrong, but you need to know which one you are buying. Ask how many different people have worked with a client like yours in the past, and whether the company keeps a written record of which caregiver knows which routine.
The supervision question
Ask who checks on the work and how often. Ask whether a supervisor visits the home, and if so, how often and whether you will be told when it happens. Ask who you call with a concern, what hours that person answers, and what happens to the call after hours. Ask whether the company will put in writing what it expects the caregiver to report back to you at the end of each shift.
The medicine line
Ask the company to describe exactly what its caregivers do and do not do. A non-medical caregiver may give medication reminders and may pick up a prescription as an errand. A caregiver does not hand out, administer, sort, or manage medicine. That work stays with the family, the doctor, and the pharmacist. If a company's answer to this question is vague, treat that as a reason to keep comparing.
The cancellation and notice lines
Read how much notice you must give to cancel a shift, what you pay if you cancel late, and whether the company charges for a visit that was not worked. Put those lines next to the quoted hourly rate on the same page so you are comparing like with like.
Put it on one page
Make a grid with the companies across the top and the five questions down the side: the replacement, the continuity, the supervision, the medicine line, and the notice terms. Fill each box with what the company said, in its own words where you can. Then talk to the people who answer the phones at each office. If you want a place to start talking through local options, the Local Help for Hospice Families page lists where to ask first.