Scheduling
How Many Caregivers Do You Need Per Client?
Divide weekly client hours by target hours per caregiver and add a 10 to 20% buffer. A 40-hour client needs two trained caregivers; a 24/7 client needs five or six.
How many hours of home care does my parent need?
Tick the tasks your family member needs help with and say whether they can safely be alone. The estimate adds typical task times and sets a floor when someone needs supervision.
Last reviewed October 17, 2026
How does the estimate work?
Each task has a typical time and a typical number of times a day; the ticked tasks are added up. If your family member can only be alone for short periods, the estimate is at least 8 hours a day; if they can't be alone at all, it's 24 hours. Visits are rounded up to 3 hours because many agencies set a minimum visit length.
| Task | Typical time | Times a day |
|---|---|---|
| Bathing or showering | 45 minutes | 1 |
| Dressing and grooming | 30 minutes | 2 |
| Toileting and continence care | 15 minutes | 4 |
| Meal preparation and eating | 45 minutes | 3 |
| Walking, transfers, repositioning | 15 minutes | 4 |
| Light housekeeping and laundry | 60 minutes | 1 |
| Medication reminders | 5 minutes | 3 |
| Errands and appointments | 60 minutes | Every other day |
Turn hours into a monthly cost with the home care cost calculator.
How Caregiver Scheduling handles this
Once an agency sets the care plan, a client's weekly pattern is set once in Caregiver Scheduling and the calendar fills itself, with authorized hours kept in check. See recurring schedules.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
Bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, continence and eating. Instrumental activities such as meals, housekeeping, errands and managing medications are counted separately.
Someone who can’t safely be left alone needs a person present whether or not a task is happening, so the hours are set by supervision, not by the task list.
No. It is a starting point for the conversation. An agency or care manager assesses in the home and writes the care plan, which sets the actual schedule.
Related guides
Operations
Minimum Visit Length: Making Short Visits Profitable
One-hour home care visits lose money once paid travel and overhead are counted. Set a 2 to 4 hour minimum or a short-visit rate, and cluster Medicaid visits by route.
Scheduling
ADL Documentation in Home Care: What Caregivers Should Record
Record which ADLs the caregiver helped with, how much help the client needed, what was refused and any change in condition, using the same scale every visit.
Scheduling
24-Hour Home Care Shifts: Live-In vs. Two 12-Hour Shifts vs. Three 8s
Three ways to staff a 24/7 client, how many paid hours each one costs, when sleep time can legally be excluded, and which pattern fits which client.
These free tools are made by the team behind Caregiver Scheduling, caregiver scheduling software for home care agencies.
Simple pricing
From $199 /month
Up to 10 caregivers on Starter, 50 on Growth.
More than 50 caregivers? We'll put together a custom Scale plan for your agency.