The Hospice Bed Leaves the House Too. Get the Pickup Route Before You Need It

The hospital bed came in on a day when someone was home to sign for it. Nobody plans the other day, the one when it leaves. That day comes after a death or after the hospice ends, and it usually comes with less warning than the delivery did. The equipment belongs to the same chain as the visits and the paperwork, so it is worth walking in order before you need it.

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.

Know which items are the hospice's and which are yours

Under the Medicare hospice benefit, equipment needed for the terminal illness is generally furnished through the hospice plan, and the hospice usually arranges the supplier. That is the general rule, not a promise about your particular house. Ask the hospice for a written list of every item in the home, and for each one, whether it is supplied through the hospice, rented from a vendor the hospice uses, or bought by the family. A commode or a set of grab bars bought outright stays where it was installed. A bed, a wheelchair, or an oxygen concentrator supplied through the hospice usually goes back when the hospice no longer needs it.

Get the pickup route in writing before anyone needs it

Ask these questions and write the answers on the delivery copy, with the date of the conversation added by you at the time, not printed in advance:

Who calls the supplier when the need ends, the hospice team, the family, or both? Get the number and the name of the person who will answer it, and ask whether that number works after hours.

Is the pickup a window or a fixed time, and does someone need to be home for it? Ask how long the window runs, so you know whether to plan around it.

If a death happens at night, will the supplier come the same day, or can the equipment stay until morning? Ask this before the night comes, not during it.

What must be clear for the crew to get out? Ask about the path through the door, the stairs, whether the bed comes apart and who does that, and where a vehicle can park. Measure the doorways now, while nothing is urgent.

For oxygen, ask what the supplier needs from the house and how the tanks and the concentrator are collected. Ask the hospice nurse what to do with any supplies still in the house, and ask who is responsible for them until the crew arrives.

Check the paper when the crew leaves

Before the crew carries anything out, ask for a pickup receipt that lists each item and its serial number, and check it against the delivery list. Keep a copy. If an item is missing from the receipt, say so before the crew leaves, not in a phone call a week later. The receipt is what closes each item on the supplier's records, and without it the item can stay open longer than anyone expects.

When the death is at night

A death in the night does not require the equipment to leave the room that night. You do not have to move the bed, the chair, or the concentrator to make a call easier. Tell the hospice who is coming and when. The funeral home, the hospice team, and the supplier each have their own steps, and those steps do not all need to happen before morning. Keep the after-hours numbers in the same place as the hospice's own number, so you are not searching for them in the dark.

If the hospice ends for another reason

If the person leaves hospice to return to treatment, or the hospice otherwise stops, the pickup may follow a different schedule from the one you were told at the start. Ask the hospice what happens to the equipment in that case, and ask it before the decision is made, not after the crew has been called.

Walk the house once before the first pickup and note where every hospice item sits, including anything moved since the delivery. A bed pushed against a wall to make room for a visitor is harder to take out than one left where it was set up. The supplier's paperwork, the hospice's list, and your own notes should agree. Where they do not, ask the hospice which one to follow, and get the answer in writing.

The rules this guide follows are listed on the Sources page, and the Local Help for Hospice Families page lists who in west St. Louis County you can call with questions about the process.