Two households can ask for the same tasks and still need different visit lengths. The difference is the house. A basement laundry, a bedroom up a flight of stairs, or a long hallway between the kitchen and the bathroom adds walking to every visit. Size the shift to the walk as well as the task list.
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.
Walk the house with a pen
Start at the door the caregiver will use. Trace the path to each place where work happens: the kitchen, the main bathroom, the bedroom, the laundry, the trash, and the car. Mark every stair. Mark every closed door. Note whether each walk is short, long, or a flight of stairs. Keep the list in the house binder or the agency folder.
Count the trips
A task list hides the trips. Laundry means a trip to the basement and back for each load. Trash means a trip to the curb or the bin. Dishes mean a trip to the sink and back. Write each trip next to its task. The total trips and stairs tell you how much of the visit is walking.
Ask whether the walk is counted
Ask the agency whether walking between rooms and floors is counted inside the visit length. Ask whether a stair-heavy house gets a longer shift, a different schedule, or a different task split. Get the answer in writing. Compare it against the house you walked.
Match the household, not the template
A ground-floor home with the bathroom off the kitchen is a different job from a tall house with the laundry in the cellar, even if the task list reads the same. Ask each agency to write the visit length against the task list and the layout. An agency that only writes the task list has not sized the job.
The hour count sits under every rate on this site. If the walk is missing from the count, the rate is built on a shift that does not exist. For how the total is built from hours, see How the cost is built.