How Home Care Starts — Our Edison Process
From the first phone call through the first day of care — how Edison Home Healthcare Agency turns a five-minute conversation into a working plan.
Frequently asked questions
- What happens on the first phone call?
- A senior care coordinator picks up. Not an operator forwarding the call, not a receptionist taking a message. The coordinator listens to the situation, asks a few orienting questions about the household, and walks through what a first week of care could look like. The call typically takes five to ten minutes and ends with scheduling a free in-home assessment if the family wants to take the next step.
- What is the in-home assessment?
- A free, no-obligation visit by the senior care coordinator to the older adult's home. The visit takes about an hour. The coordinator walks through the house, talks with the family, talks with the older adult when possible, and writes a care plan with you (not for you). There is no contract to sign at the visit. The plan that results is short and specific — which services start, on what schedule, and which to revisit in two weeks.
- How quickly can care actually start?
- For most Edison families, the first care visit happens within 24 to 48 hours of the in-home assessment. For urgent post-discharge situations, the timeline can collapse to the same day if a discharge planner calls before the patient leaves the hospital. The first care visit is typically a longer one so the caregiver can settle into the home, meet the household, and execute the first day of the care plan with the coordinator's support.
- How is the plan adjusted after care starts?
- The senior care coordinator stays in touch with the family weekly in the first weeks, then biweekly, then monthly once the routine has stabilized. Any change in the household — a new symptom, a fall, a hospital visit, a change in the family's availability — triggers a plan review. The plan is meant to evolve with the situation, not to lock the household into a schedule that no longer fits.