The hospice visits are on a schedule, and the schedule is set by the team. The drive to the pharmacy, the clinic, the equipment supplier and the grocery store is set by you. Those trips are easy to overlook because each one seems small. Added together over a month, they can become one of the larger costs of keeping a parent at home.
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.
Write down every trip for one week
For seven days, record each trip: where it went, the round-trip miles, any parking or toll, the time away from the house, and why it was needed. Keep the receipts for parking and any purchases. Most families find that a handful of destinations account for most of the driving, and that some trips were made only because a first errand missed an item.
What pushes the number up
Distance to the pharmacy or clinic is the most obvious driver. Others are less visible: a pharmacy that does not deliver, appointments booked far from home, parking garages at hospitals and clinics, and the second trip that follows a first trip that came back incomplete. Each of these is worth a line in your count.
What can bring it down
Ask whether the pharmacy offers delivery or mail service, and whether it can fill a refill on the same day it is requested. Group appointments where the clinic allows it. Ask whether a hired non-medical caregiver can pick up a prescription as an errand, which is one of the few tasks they can take on. The medicines themselves stay with you, the prescriber and the pharmacist, so keep that line clear when you hand off the pickup. Also ask the hospice office whether any supplies can be sent to the house rather than fetched.
Ask which trips the hospice benefit covers
Ask the hospice office which trips, if any, fall under what it provides, including transportation to visits and equipment deliveries. Ask for the answer in writing and file it with the care papers. Do not assume that a trip is covered because it is medical, and do not assume it is not covered because it is an errand. The office can only tell you what applies to your situation.
Make the comparison honest
Choose one per-mile figure and use it every month, so that the totals can be compared from one month to the next. Add parking, tolls and any delivery fees. Do not compare a month with a crisis against a month without one without noting the difference. The figure will rise in the weeks when something changes, and seeing that rise in your own numbers is more useful than estimating it.
The hours between visits are the hours you are on the road. Counting the trips is the first step to deciding which of them can be shared, moved or stopped.