A coordination checklist for a hospice and a funeral home

Contacts

Source: [1]

After-hours process

• Who calls the funeral home: the nurse or the family.
• Our arrival estimate at night and on weekends.
• Whether the nurse waits for us, and what the nurse does if we are delayed.
• Access notes we need: address, stairs, pets, gate codes.
• What we do if the family wants more time.

Source: [1]

Release of the body

• Who pronounces death for this hospice in our state.
• What the nurse tells us: time of death, who pronounced, attending physician.
• When the medical examiner or coroner must be told, and who tells them.
• Who gives the family's authorization, and how we record it.
• Identification: how we tag and confirm identity before leaving.

Source: [2]

Personal effects, equipment and medicines

• Jewelry and personal items: listed in writing and signed by the family.
• Hospice equipment such as the bed or oxygen stays in the home.
• Medicines stay in the home for the hospice to dispose of under its policy.

Source: [3]

Death certificate

• Who certifies the cause of death, and how to reach them.
• Our state's deadlines for filing and for medical certification.
• Who in the family gives the personal information.
• How many certified copies the family may need.

Deadlines in five large states are in what happens when a hospice patient dies at home.

Source: [2]

After the death

• How families reach the hospice's bereavement support, which lasts up to a year.
• Who contacts the family and when, so they do not get duplicate calls.
• A short call between us after any death that did not go smoothly.

Source: [4]