A caregiver may need a door key, garage remote, building fob, alarm code, lockbox code, or instructions for a hidden key. The failure usually appears later: a substitute receives the code by text, nobody records a copied key, or the assignment ends without anyone closing access. Use this check before the first shift. The control method below applies the key and credential inventory principle described on the public CISA page Key and Credential Inventory / Control Program. Missouri's Department of Health and Senior Services also tells households to give a key to a trusted person as part of emergency preparation on its public page Pandemic Influenza. The working word is trusted.
1. List every route into the house
Walk from the street to the room where care begins. Do not write only "front door." Include the building entrance, elevator restriction, garage, side door, alarm panel, lockbox, smart lock, and any key kept outside.
Write it down:
Building entrance: ____________________
House entrance: ____________________
Alarm or smart-home step: ____________________
Backup entrance: ____________________
Person who controls each item: ____________________
Public-page basis: CISA's Key and Credential Inventory / Control Program identifies keys, credentials, locks, combinations, and codes as separate access items that can be inventoried and tracked. This worksheet turns that public control principle into a household check. The full citation path belongs on the site's Sources page.
2. Ask who receives access
Ask the provider: "Will the assigned caregiver receive the key or code, or will your office hold and distribute it?" Then ask: "Can a supervisor, substitute, scheduler, or contractor receive it without asking me again?"
Listen for an answer that names the people or roles, the delivery method, and the record the provider keeps. Write:
People or roles allowed access: ____________________
Person who authorizes another user: ____________________
Record showing who received it: ____________________
Walk away from the access plan if the answer is "whoever is working" and nobody can tell you how that person is identified or recorded. That is not a score of the provider. It is an unresolved control in the job you are about to authorize.
Public-page basis: CISA's Key and Credential Inventory / Control Program describes accountability for keys, combinations, and access credentials. Ready.gov's public page Individuals with Disabilities advises including trusted people in a support network and sharing a key with people who need emergency access. The household decision here is to name those people before sharing access.
3. Give the narrowest access that completes the shift
Choose the entrance the caregiver actually needs. Do not add the garage, office, file room, or secondary code merely because it is convenient to hand over everything at once. If a lock or alarm system supports a separate user code, record whose code it is. If it does not, record that the code is shared so you know what must be changed later.
Access issued: ____________________
Access not issued: ____________________
Shared code that must be changed later: ____________________
This is a household procedure derived from the inventory and accountability controls on CISA's Key and Credential Inventory / Control Program. It is not a claim that a particular lock, alarm, or smart-home product is safer.
4. Test one arrival while you are present
Have the assigned caregiver complete the actual entry without coaching from the curb. Watch for the building door, lockbox, alarm step, relocking, and placement of any physical key. Ask: "What will you do if this key or code does not work?"
Listen for a named call route. "I will text somebody" is incomplete. Write the person, primary number, backup number, and where the caregiver waits without leaving the house open.
Primary access contact: ____________________
Backup access contact: ____________________
Waiting location: ____________________
Test completed: ____________________
Stop the test if the caregiver props open a common door, leaves a key outside the agreed location, or asks a neighbor for entry without your permission. Fix the route before the caregiver uses it alone.
Public-page basis: Ready.gov's Individuals with Disabilities recommends building a support network and sharing emergency information with that network. Missouri DHSS's Pandemic Influenza likewise connects trusted key access with knowledge of the household's emergency supplies. Naming the call route and testing entry are this sheet's practical checks on that shared-access plan.
5. Put physical items on a receipt
For each key, fob, remote, or parking credential, record a plain description and a unique mark you can recognize. Have the receiver acknowledge possession. Do not record an alarm or lockbox code on the same paper that identifies the address.
Item: ____________________
Identifying mark: ____________________
Received by: ____________________
Held personally or by provider office: ____________________
Return required to: ____________________
Ask an agency: "If the caregiver changes, who retrieves this item before the replacement starts?" Ask a direct hire: "Will you return this item at the final shift, and whom will you hand it to?"
Listen for one accountable person and one return method. A promise that "the office handles that" is incomplete until the office contact is named.
Public-page basis: CISA's Key and Credential Inventory / Control Program treats key and credential accountability as a control program. A signed household receipt is the record used here to show custody. It is not a legal form.
6. Write the change rule before a substitute appears
Ask: "If the assigned caregiver is absent, will anyone share the key, fob, or code with the replacement?" Then ask: "Who must contact me first?"
Write the permitted route:
Substitute access may be approved by: ____________________
Approval must be given by phone, text, or another method: ____________________
Physical item may be transferred by: ____________________
Transfer must be recorded by: ____________________
Do not accept a plan that depends on the outgoing caregiver privately passing a key or code to an unknown replacement. Pause access until the provider identifies the replacement and the authorized person approves the handoff.
Public-page basis: the CISA public control page cited above centers inventory and accountability for access credentials. The identification step also follows the site's hiring sequence in Start Here: Five Steps to Hiring.
7. Test the exit before the arrangement ends
Ask now, not during a dispute: "What happens to every key, fob, remote, and code when this caregiver leaves the assignment?" Separate physical returns from code changes. A returned key does not answer whether another copy exists. A disabled smart-lock user does not retrieve a building fob.
Write the closeout list:
Physical items to recover: ____________________
Codes to change or disable: ____________________
Person who completes each action: ____________________
Person who verifies completion: ____________________
Listen for a process that covers routine caregiver changes as well as the end of the entire service. Walk away from the proposed access arrangement if neither the provider nor the family will own closeout.
Public-page basis: CISA's public materials on credential management distinguish issuing, tracking, revoking, and terminating credentials. This household list applies those separate actions to the access items recorded above.
8. Keep one access log
Use one sheet for issuance, changes, missing items, returns, and disabled codes. Do not place working codes in the log. Record only the code label, such as "caregiver door code," and the person responsible for changing it.
For each event, write:
Access item: ____________________
Person involved: ____________________
What changed: ____________________
Who verified it: ____________________
If an item is missing or a code was shared outside the written route, stop treating the old list as accurate. Rebuild the list from the doors inward, recover physical items where possible, and change or disable access under the lock, alarm, building, or provider procedure that applies.
Public-page basis: CISA's Key and Credential Inventory / Control Program supports tracking access items and accountability. For how this desk separates public facts from its working checks, see How We Write the Sheets.