The Household Information Sheet: Who Keeps Contacts, House Details, and Routines Current

A household information sheet only helps when someone owns each entry and changes it the same day something changes. A sheet that was correct at the first visit but goes stale later causes the same confusion as having no sheet at all.

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What belongs on the sheet

Keep the sheet to facts that a caregiver and an agency office need: the family contacts in order of who to call, the neighbor who holds a key, the agency office phone number and its hours, the entry door and how the lock works, the location of the water shutoff and the breaker panel, the alarm company name if there is one, and routine notes such as meal times, the bathroom routine, and the evening wind-down. Health questions go to the family's doctor, so the sheet holds routines and contacts, not a health history.

Assign an owner for each row

Put a name beside every entry. The owner of a row is the person who updates it when the fact changes. Name a backup owner for each row too, so a change does not wait for one person's return. A row with no owner is the row that goes stale.

Set the update triggers

Write down the events that force an update: a new key holder, a changed phone number at the agency office, a new caregiver who needs the entry route, a change in meal times, or a change in who makes the calls to the agency. Update the sheet the day the event happens and tell the caregiver the same day. Ask the agency how it records a change it receives from the family, and whether that change reaches the caregiver before the next visit.

Keep the sheet private and in copies

Do not write a door code on a sheet that can be seen through a window or from the street. Keep lock details in a sealed envelope held by the owner and the backup owner, and give the caregiver only what the visit requires. Keep a printed copy at home near the phone, and ask the agency whether it keeps a copy on file at the office.

A regular check

Once a month, have the owner read the sheet aloud to the backup owner and check each row against the house. Replace any row that no longer matches, and note who made the check and when it happened so the next check starts from a known point.