Transfers and mobility: how much help the patient needs, and who will take it

Some home care agencies take a client only at certain levels of help with transfers, for example a client who does at least half of the work, or a client who is fully bedbound. So the patient's level is written down in one place, every agency says which levels it takes, and a family sees which listings match before anyone calls.

On the care plan. Open My Care Plan, then 13. Mobility and Fall Safety. The first group is How much help the patient needs to move, with the patient's name in the heading. Transfer assistance level is the standard therapy scale in plain words: Independent; Modified independent (uses a device); Supervision / standby; Contact guard; Minimal assist (the patient does 75% or more); Moderate assist (50–74%); Maximal assist (25–49%); Dependent (less than 25%); and Bedbound. Under the choice, one line says what it means, with the patient's name: for Maximal assist, that the helper does most of the lifting and the patient does 25 to 49% of the work. Then Number of people needed (One person or Two people), Fall risk (Low, Moderate, High), Weight-bearing status (Full weight bearing, Weight bearing as tolerated, Partial weight bearing, Toe-touch weight bearing, Non-weight bearing) with Which leg or arm, and the order, the Date assessed, Assessed by (Family, Nurse, Physical therapist (PT), Occupational therapist (OT), or Doctor or nurse practitioner) and Who assessed it, as a first and a last name. Every list starts at Choose one. Under the group, Equipment the patient uses to move lists the gait or transfer belt, walker or rollator, cane, wheelchair or transport chair, transfer board, mechanical lift (Hoyer), hospital bed, bed rails or a bed assist bar, bedside commode, and the shower or tub transfer chair, the same names as Equipment often needed at home on Coming Home, each answered Yes or No. Everything saves as you go, like every other field of the plan. A nurse or a therapist can set the level with you; it is not a diagnosis.

When Two people is chosen, the section notes that a shift on the weekly schedule can need two people at once: People needed on the shift, on Scheduling & Coverage.

The care team sees it. On the care-team dashboard, Patient info, under the patient's door, shows How much help the patient needs to move once something is recorded: the level, what it means, the number of people, the equipment, weight bearing and fall risk, and who assessed it and when. It is read only there; the family changes it on the care plan.

On an organization's patient record. In the organization's Patients, a row's Patient record has a closed section, Mobility and transfers. It shows what the family recorded on the care plan as one line, while the patient is active with the organization, and the organization's own answers beside it: the same level, people, equipment, weight bearing, fall risk and who assessed it. The two are kept apart and never mixed. Save mobility saves the organization's answers; the record's providers and administrators can change them, everyone else who can see the patient reads them.

An agency says which clients it accepts. On Provider Home, an agency's card Clients we accept has four answers: The most help with transfers we give (from Independent to Dependent), Two-person assists, Mechanical lift (Hoyer) and Bedbound clients, each Yes or No. The agency's card in search and its profile then say it in one line, for example Takes clients who need maximal assist with two people and a mechanical lift. Bedbound clients too. On the profile, the Services tab lists the four answers. An independent professional has Transfers and lifting instead: heavy transfers, two-person transfers, trained on a mechanical lift (Hoyer), and the pounds they can lift and carry safely.

A family sees whether a listing matches. Signed in as a family whose care plan records the level, every card on Find home care providers, and the profile, carries one more line: Matches the patient's needs (with the patient's name), or a gentle line such as This agency doesn't list maximal assist or two-person assists. Ask before you rule it out. A listing that has not answered yet reads that it hasn't listed which clients it takes. Nothing is hidden or rejected on the family's behalf; the line only says what the listing said.

The family's own filter. On Find home care providers, Help with transfers opens three choices: How much help with transfers (the same scale, starting at Choose one), Two people for transfers, and A mechanical lift (Hoyer). With any of them on, the results keep the agencies that say they take it and the professionals who list those transfers; anyone who has not said yet is left out while the filter is on. A signed-in family whose care plan records the level sees Use the patient's needs from the care plan, which fills the filter in.

Hiring the right professional. An agency's Post a job form (Hiring) and Write the job description for me, for a family or an agency, have Transfers and lifting (optional): Able to safely do heavy transfers, for a client who gives little or no help; Able to work as one of two people on a two-person transfer; Trained to use a mechanical lift (Hoyer) safely; Lift and carry up to a number of pounds; and one line of physical requirements in your words. They are written into the posting as duties, and the public job page shows them under Physical requirements. A posting can never ask who the person is: a line that asks for a man or a woman, a guy, an age or a body is refused as it is typed, with what to say instead, for example Able to safely do heavy transfers in place of bring a guy in.