Post-surgery and hospital-to-home care
Help at home after surgery or a hospital stay
The first weeks home from the hospital are when older adults are most likely to fall, miss medications, or end up back in the hospital. A caregiver at home during that stretch handles daily life so your parent can focus on recovering.
Licensing and caregiver screening
Licensed Home Care OrganizationCDSS license #374700397
Caregivers on the state registryLive Scan fingerprint check (CA DOJ and FBI) and TB test
Owned by a registered nurseMildred Kiminyei, RN
Why the first 30 days matter
Medicare tracks how often patients go back to the hospital within 30 days, because it happens so often. Common reasons are falls, medication mix-ups, infections, dehydration, and discharge instructions that didn’t get followed. Most of those are about daily life at home, not medical care.
Before discharge: what to ask the hospital
Ask for the discharge planner or case manager. Sharp, Scripps, UC San Diego Health, Palomar Health, and San Diego’s other hospitals all have them.
- The medication list. What’s new, what was stopped, and what changed dose. Get it in writing.
- Home health. Has it been ordered, and by which agency? Medicare covers visits from a nurse or therapist if your parent qualifies.
- Equipment. Walker, shower chair, raised toilet seat, bedside commode, or hospital bed. Ask who is ordering it and when it will arrive.
- Limits. How much weight on the leg, no bending or lifting, no driving, and for how long.
- Follow-ups. The dates and times of follow-up appointments, before you leave.
If surgery is scheduled, call us at (858) 380-9599 before the surgery date, so the care plan and caregiver are ready on the day your parent comes home.
What a caregiver does in the first days home
- Is there for the ride home and the first night, which is often the hardest
- Sets up the bedroom and bathroom for safety before your parent needs them
- Helps with bathing, dressing, and the toilet while movement is limited
- Reminds your parent about medications on the new schedule and keeps a simple log for the family
- Makes meals and keeps fluids coming
- Helps with the exercises the physical therapist assigns, the way the therapist showed
- Drives to follow-up appointments
Warning signs the caregiver watches for
Fever, new confusion, redness or drainage at the incision, pain or swelling in the calf, shortness of breath, or not urinating. The caregiver reports these to the family and our office right away. Our founder, a registered nurse, helps decide whether it means calling the surgeon or 911.
What caregivers don’t do
Change wound dressings, manage drains or IVs, or give injections. If the hospital ordered home health, a nurse from that agency does those things.
Home health and home care work together
After a hip replacement, for example, a home health physical therapist might visit three times a week for exercises, and a home health nurse might check the incision. Between those visits, a caregiver from our agency helps with getting out of bed, showering, meals, and getting to the follow-up appointment. Medicare often pays for the home health visits. The caregiver hours are paid privately or by long-term care insurance.
How long post-surgery care lasts
Often two to six weeks, starting with more hours right after discharge and tapering as your parent gets stronger. Plan for more help at first than you think you’ll need. It’s easier to cut hours than to add them after a fall.
Post-surgery care is billed at our hourly rate, $40 to $48 an hour.
Where we provide this care
Related care
Personal Care
Help with bathing, dressing, toileting, and getting in and out of bed or a chair, with an eye on fall risk.
Homemaking & Home Helper
Light housekeeping, laundry, cooking, groceries, errands, and rides to appointments.
24-Hour & Live-In Care
Caregivers in shifts around the clock, or one live-in caregiver, for someone who can’t safely be alone.
Common questions
Does Medicare pay for a caregiver after surgery?
Medicare may pay for home health visits from a nurse or therapist if your parent is homebound and needs skilled care. It doesn’t pay for a caregiver to help with bathing, meals, or supervision when that’s the only help needed.
Can care start the day my mother leaves the hospital?
If we know the discharge date, we plan for it. Call as soon as the hospital gives you a date, even if it might change.
My father insists he’ll be fine alone. What do we do?
Ask the surgeon or physical therapist to spell out his limits in front of him, like no stairs alone or no showering without someone there. Start with the hours he’s most at risk, usually mornings and nights, and cut back as he recovers.
Request a free in-home consultation
Tell us what’s going on and we’ll call you back to talk it through and set up a visit at the home. The consultation is free.
If it’s urgent, call instead of using the form.
- (858) 380-9599
- love@pendaseniorhomecare.com
- Office hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Care available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week