This guide covers one question to settle before you sign with any agency: what screening runs on each aide, and whether the agency will put the answer in writing. The public files can confirm that an agency is registered. They do not show what checks an agency ran on any single aide. That answer comes from the agency, so it has to be asked and written down.

Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.

What the public files can and cannot show

From the file: a federal lookup shows an agency's name, its listed location, and whether it appears in the public record for the category it claims. The lookups are described step by step in the guide linked at the end of this piece.

Editorial: a registration is not a statement about the people who will walk through your door. Treat the file as proof the agency is on record, and treat the screening answer as a separate item on your list.

Questions to ask on the first call

Ask which checks the agency runs on each aide before that aide's first visit. Ask whether the checks cover the aide's identity, past work history, and any public records the agency is allowed to search. Ask who performs the checks, whether it is the agency's own staff or an outside company, and the name of that company if one is used.

Ask how often the checks are repeated. Ask what the agency does when a check turns up something it did not expect, and whether it tells the family when that happens. Ask whether an aide can be placed in your home before the checks are finished, and if so, how the agency supervises that aide until they are.

What to ask to see on paper

Ask for the written screening policy rather than a verbal summary. Ask for the signed record that the checks were completed for the specific aide who will come to your home, with that aide's name on it. Ask who keeps that record and how the family can see it on request.

Ask what happens when an aide is replaced. The replacement needs its own record before the first visit, and the agency should confirm that in writing.

Write each answer beside its question

Keep a single sheet with the question in one column and the answer in the next. Mark each answer as one of three things: said by the agency, found in a file, or your own note. Name the one family member who asks the follow-up questions and the one who keeps the signed copies. A sheet with no keeper gets lost by the second visit.

When the answer is vague

If the agency says checks are done but cannot show the record, or calls the policy confidential with no summary at all, count that as an unanswered question. Keep looking at the other agencies on your list. A polished website, a high star count, or a friendly phone manner is not a screening record. Stars are opinions, not checks.

For the federal lookups that confirm registration, use How to check any home health agency in five federal lookups, then return to these questions.