MF Family Home Care provides hospital to home care on Cape Cod for the period right after a discharge — the fortnight when people either recover or end up back in the hospital.
We provide non-medical home care. We do not perform skilled nursing, we do not operate a hospice program, and we do not bill Medicare.
— where most post-discharge falls happen.
Weight-bearing limits, elevation, ice, wound-dressing schedules kept on time by someone reading the sheet.
Discharges frequently change every prescription at once, and confusion here is the single most common cause of readmission.
Appetite disappears after a hospital stay, right when the body needs the most.
— with the folder, and with someone who can repeat afterward what was said.
Fever, swelling, confusion, a wound that looks wrong. Not a diagnosis — the noticing, and the phone call to the family and the physician.
One call, a free visit at home, and a written plan you can change. Most families begin smaller than they expect.
Tell us what is happening and what a normal day looks like now compared with six months ago.
We come to the house and look at the practical things — the stairs, the bathroom, the kitchen, the hours when nobody is around.
Most families begin smaller than they expect and adjust within the first month. No long-term contract is required to begin.
Getting into and out of bed and chairs safely — where most post-discharge falls happen.
Following the actual instructions. Weight-bearing limits, elevation, ice, wound-dressing schedules kept on time by someone reading the sheet.
Medication reminders. Discharges frequently change every prescription at once, and confusion here is the single most common cause of readmission.
Meals and hydration. Appetite disappears after a hospital stay, right when the body needs the most.
Getting to follow-up appointments — with the folder, and with someone who can repeat afterward what was said.
Watching for the warning signs. Fever, swelling, confusion, a wound that looks wrong. Not a diagnosis — the noticing, and the phone call to the family and the physician.
Most families arrange this on day four, after the first bad night.
Call before the discharge instead. If you know your parent is coming home on Thursday, we can be there Thursday — with the house already checked for the obvious hazards, and a schedule that covers the mornings and evenings when nobody else is around.
Short-term is fine. Many families use us intensively for two or three weeks and then stop entirely. That is a legitimate and common way to work with us.
Every caregiver clears a Massachusetts CORI background check before entering a client’s home, and MF Family Home Care carries insurance covering the work our caregivers do in your home. Ask any agency for both — a household letting someone in unsupervised should not have to wonder. We match caregivers to households deliberately — schedule, temperament, language and the specific help required — because a good match is what makes someone accept help at all.
MF Family Home Care is owned by Marlene Plouf, a Certified Nurse Aide registered with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health under CNA54796 — a credential with a number the state can verify. Very few agencies in this region put an owner’s certification in writing.
Nobody publishes this, so families end up calling five agencies to build a picture. Here is the honest range.
Across Massachusetts, in-home care generally runs between $35 and $46 an hour, with a statewide planning average near $38. Cape Cod sits above that — in Barnstable, home care can reach $50 an hour. The reason is supply: Barnstable County has one of the oldest populations in the country and a caregiver workforce squeezed by the seasonal housing market.
Companion hours sit at the lower end of the range, hands-on personal care in the middle. Overnight and live-in schedules are quoted differently from an hourly rate, because a caregiver who sleeps in the house is not billed like one working an active shift. Ask any agency to explain which one they are quoting before you compare two numbers, or you will be comparing figures that do not mean the same thing.
Your real number depends on how many hours you need, whether nights and weekends are involved, and how much hands-on help is required. We give a figure on the phone rather than a brochure.
The person receiving care is not the only one whose week changes.
Adult children stop driving over at lunchtime to check on something. The daughter who has been managing appointments, prescriptions and groceries from two towns away gets a report instead of a guess. The spouse who has been doing all of it alone gets to be a husband or a wife again rather than only a caregiver.
That shift matters as much as the practical help. Families who bring in support early tend to keep a parent at home for years longer than families who wait, because the arrangement stays survivable for everyone in it — not just for the person in the bed.
We serve families throughout Barnstable County, including Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, Mashpee, Barnstable, Hyannis, Yarmouth, West Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Brewster, Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown — and across Massachusetts, including Boston, Worcester, Lowell, Framingham, Brockton and Plymouth.
Our office is at 21 College Road, West Yarmouth, MA 02673.
We answer 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
The questions families ask us most, answered plainly.
Frequently yes, if you call before it happens. Tell us the discharge date as soon as you know it.
No. Skilled nursing after a hospital stay — wound care, injections, physical therapy — comes from a licensed home health agency, often covered by Medicare. We provide the non-medical support around it: the meals, the bathing, the mobility, the reminders, the presence.
We tell you honestly what we are seeing, and we say so if the situation needs more than non-medical care.
Usually within a few days. We answer the phone at night and on weekends, because these decisions are rarely made during business hours.
