Mom was just discharged from Missouri Baptist. What now?
The seven-day strip. You are here.
- Day 0Still in the bed
- Day 1The car pulls in
- Day 2The first full day
- Day 3The 72-hour wall
- Day 4The follow-up
- Day 5Home health, or not
- Day 6The family meeting
- Day 7One week home
Day 0, still in the bed
Published September 11, 2026. Desk byline, no clinician. Each claim on this page is linked to a public URL; the dated list lives on the sources page.
The car has left 3015 N. Ballas Road, or it is about to. Mom was just discharged from Missouri Baptist. What now, for an elderly mom? This page is the first 24 hours: the public number, the folder, the West County agencies, home health versus a person in the house, and the order of the night. It is Day 0 even if she is already on the couch. Hospitals are maps, not villains. Missouri Baptist is a BJC hospital with one public main number. That number is how you start.
What number do I call at Missouri Baptist after we leave?
BJC's public page for Missouri Baptist Medical Center lists it at 3015 N. Ballas Road, St. Louis, MO 63131, phone 314-996-5000, open 24 hours. Call that number. Ask for the case manager or social worker on her unit. The Family Caregiver Alliance says your point person could be a discharge planning manager, a social worker, a nurse, or another hospital representative. This desk will not invent a department or a direct-dial extension. Write 314-996-5000 on the folder, with her unit under it. Federal rules say discharge planning includes the patient and her caregivers as active partners. You may still call after the car has pulled out of Ballas Road.
Sources: BJC HealthCare, Missouri Baptist Medical Center; Family Caregiver Alliance, Hospital Discharge Planning: A Guide for Families and Caregivers; eCFR, 42 CFR 482.43. Opened September 11, 2026.
Open the folder before you unpack the bag
Medicare's discharge checklist says you are members of the planning team. Tonight, use it as a scavenger hunt. Circle the help she needs with bathing, dressing, the bathroom, stairs, cooking, shopping, cleaning, bills, and driving. Write the names and numbers to call. Keep the written discharge instructions on a fridge sheet. Ask whether a walker is covered and who delivers it. Get the prescriptions now. If you are still in the building, ask the staff to show you any special skills, then practice them. If you did not get a notice about discharge rights, the checklist says to ask for it. For a Medicare inpatient that notice is the Important Message from Medicare. The page on what to say about an unsafe discharge walks through that paper. If she is already home, you cannot rewind the stay. You can still staff the night.
Source: Medicare, Your Discharge Planning Checklist. Opened September 11, 2026.
Put your name on the chart, even now
Missouri's CARE Act, section 191.1150, says a hospital shall provide each patient with an opportunity to designate a caregiver after admission and before discharge. If she is already home, ask the case manager whether that designation is on the chart. If it is not, ask for it. The statute says the hospital shall notify that caregiver of the discharge as soon as practicable and, if the caregiver is willing, shall provide the discharge plan or after-care instructions and the opportunity to ask questions. The same section says designation does not obligate any person to arrange or perform any after-care tasks. Being named is a phone tree, not a promise that you will do every hour yourself.
Source: Missouri Revisor of Statutes, RSMo 191.1150, opened September 11, 2026.
Does BJC Home Care mean someone stays overnight?
No. BJC Home Care's public site describes home health and related in-home services operated by BJC. Home health is visits. Medicare.gov says she must need part-time or intermittent skilled services and be homebound, in most cases up to 8 hours a day combined, 28 hours a week, and that Medicare does not pay for 24-hour-a-day care at home, or for personal care when that is the only care she needs. If the papers say "BJC Home Care" or "home health ordered," write "VISITS" next to that name, with the first visit date. You do not have to use any one agency. Federal rules say the hospital must inform you of your freedom to choose among participating Medicare providers. BJC Home Care is one option. The overnight hours are a separate decision. See home health versus home care. To book those hours after a Missouri Baptist discharge, Hirecaregiver STL.
Sources: BJC Home Care, public site; Medicare.gov, Home health services; eCFR, 42 CFR 482.43. Opened September 11, 2026.
Missouri's three types, so the paperwork makes sense
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services describes three types of care in the home. Home health is Medicare, skilled, part-time or intermittent, ordered by a physician. In-home care is Medicaid, which Missouri calls MO HealthNet, requested through the DSDS call center at 866-835-3505. Private duty, or private pay, is paid with private funds or insurance. Missouri says no physician order is needed for aide personal care, respite or companion care, and that no license is issued in Missouri for that type of company. That third type puts a person in the house at 2am. Ask which of the three you were given. "Transitional care" on a form is not one of them.
Source: Missouri DHSS, The Three Types of Care in the Home, opened September 11, 2026.
Who covers West County once she is home?
If she lives in Ballwin, Chesterfield, Valley Park, or the rest of St. Louis County, the Area Agency on Aging is Aging Ahead. It describes itself as one of ten Area Agencies on Aging in Missouri, serving St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin and Jefferson counties since 1973, with Meals on Wheels, senior centers, caregiving services and community options consulting. Call them in the morning. If you are not sure which agency covers her ZIP, Missouri's Senior Resource Line is 1-800-235-5503 and routes by ZIP code. For meals, rides, and the rest, United Way 211 is a 24/7 connection to agencies nearby. Dial 211 tonight if you need a number you do not have. If she went somewhere else, the West County discharge map is here. This page stays with Missouri Baptist.
Sources: Aging Ahead, About Us; Missouri DHSS, Area Agencies on Aging; United Way of Greater St. Louis, 211. Opened September 11, 2026.
The house, then the overnight cell
The house still has to be on her side. The National Institute on Aging says more than one in four people age 65 or older fall each year. That is why the first hour is the floor and the lights. The 24-hour setup list is the order: path, bed, bathroom, equipment, fridge door, pharmacy, phone tree. Then draw the week on the 168-hour grid. Fill the overnight cells first, 10pm to 7am. If tonight is a blank, that block is private pay or family. Medicare does not pay for long-term care. Write who is in the house from 10pm to 7am on the fridge sheet.
Sources: NIA, Falls and Fractures in Older Adults; Medicare.gov, Long-term care. Opened September 11, 2026.
What to do tonight- Write 314-996-5000 on the folder, with her unit and "case manager / social worker."
- Circle the help she needs. Copy names, numbers, the drug list, the follow-up, and the written instructions onto one fridge sheet.
- Ask whether you were designated as her caregiver under the CARE Act. If not, ask on the next call.
- Write "VISITS" next to any home health agency, including BJC Home Care, with the first visit date. Then write who is in the house tonight.
- Walk the path from the door to the bed to the bathroom. Rugs up, a light on.
- Fill the overnight cell. If it is blank, make the call. In the morning, Aging Ahead. Tonight, 211.
Whether she is medically ready to be home, what to watch for, what the drug list says, and when the first home health visit should happen are questions for the people who treated her at Missouri Baptist and for her physician. This page is a map of the first night. It has no opinion about the hospital. A non-medical caregiver does not do nursing tasks, does not decide what a symptom means, and does not change a dose.
Paid placement, for the first night home from Ballas Road
New Plan Care
New Plan Care is an independently owned non-medical in-home care company based in Chesterfield, Missouri. Its caregivers help with the first night home after a Missouri Baptist discharge, meals, bathing and dressing as personal care, a hand on the stairs, overnight presence, in Ballwin, Chesterfield, Eureka, Glencoe, Grover, Pacific, Valley Park and St. Louis. It does not do nursing tasks. Call (314) 405-0887.
Paid placement, disclosed. New Plan Care is a client of OwnersFirm, which publishes this site, and pays for this box. Read it as an ad with a phone number, not as a ranking or a score drawn from this page.
Next on the strip
From the sources on this page
314-996-5000BJC: Missouri Baptist Medical Center, 3015 N. Ballas Road, St. Louis, MO 63131, open 24 hours. Choose42 CFR 482.43: the hospital must inform you of freedom to choose among participating Medicare providers. 8 / 28Medicare.gov: in most cases, home health is up to 8 hours a day combined, 28 hours a week. 1973Aging Ahead: one of ten Area Agencies on Aging in Missouri, serving West County since 1973.New Plan Care keeps the hours this page is about.
Call (314) 405-0887