Home Care in
Sri Lanka
for Boston Families.
Home care in Sri Lanka for Boston families serves an unusually medical community. A great many of our families here work in the hospitals themselves, which changes what a useful update looks like. BetterHands puts a vetted carer in your parents home and gives Boston the detail it actually reads.
A clinical audience
Who read the detail properly
9½ hrs
Behind Colombo
1,000+
Carer profiles
Vetted and reference-checked
72 Hours
Placement guarantee
Or we escalate immediately
96%
First-match success
50+ matching factors
PHSRC
Registered nurses
For clinical home nursing
Hospitals, universities, and a very informed audience
Why Boston Families Arrange Home Care in Sri Lanka.
Boston holds a comparatively small but highly concentrated Sri Lankan community, weighted towards medicine and academia and spread through Cambridge, Waltham, Quincy and Malden.
A striking share of families here work in healthcare. That produces a particular kind of anxiety, because you know exactly what can go wrong and cannot examine the patient yourself.
Consequently the reassurance that works is specific rather than general. Professional home care with a written clinical record is what actually settles a clinician at a distance.
- Households working in the hospitals and universities themselves
- Parents who never emigrated, so no US entitlement applies to them
- Clinical knowledge that makes vague reassurance worse, not better
- Rotas and on-call weeks that rule out predictable phone calls
Nine and a half hours, and a clinical eye on the notes
Calling Colombo from Boston: Finding the Window.
Boston runs on Eastern Time, nine and a half hours behind Colombo in summer and ten and a half in winter. The useful window is early in your morning, before rounds.
Your morning, their evening
Eight in the morning in Boston is half past five in the evening in Colombo. Early enough to be before your day, late enough to cover all of theirs.
Your evening is their night
Eight at night here is half past five the next morning in Colombo. It wakes a sleeping household, so nothing is scheduled against it.
The update lands before rounds
The Colombo shift closes around six in the evening, which is half past eight that morning in Boston. Usually it is read before the day properly starts.
Writing for people who read charts for a living
Our shift notes record what was actually observed: what was eaten, which doses were given and when, how mobility looked, sleep, mood, and anything unusual. They are deliberately concrete rather than reassuring.
Families who work in medicine tend to want the raw observation, not an interpretation of it. Where something clinical is involved, our PHSRC-registered nurses handle it and record it in the same way.
Agreed in advance, not invented at 3am
Decisions to Make Before You Need Them.
Clinicians usually want the escalation thresholds defined rather than left to judgement, so we set them explicitly.
Who we ring first
One named person in Boston, and one contact in Sri Lanka who can physically attend. Both agreed and written down before the placement begins.
Which hospital
Named in advance with a second choice. Families in medicine usually have a firm view here, and we would rather have it upfront.
What triggers a call
We agree the specific thresholds — a fall, a missed dose, a temperature, a refusal to eat — that mean contacting you immediately rather than noting it.
What we can put in place
Home Care Services for Your Parents in Sri Lanka.
Where our Boston families live
Serving Sri Lankan Families Across Boston.
The care always happens in Sri Lanka. What changes around Boston is largely the rota, and how clinical a household’s own working life is.
Cambridge
Academic and medical, and where a good share of our Boston enquiries begin. Households often arrived through the universities.
Waltham
Suburban and professional, with technology and pharmaceutical employment alongside the hospitals.
Quincy
South of the city and more mixed, with a broader range of work and longer-settled families.
Malden
North and highly diverse, where Sri Lankan households sit within a much larger immigrant community.
Before you commit
What Boston Families Ask Before They Commit.
Does Medicare cover care for my parents in Sri Lanka?
No. Medicare almost never pays for care outside the United States, and it covers you rather than a parent overseas. Neither Massachusetts nor any federal programme funds home care in Colombo, so the arrangement is private throughout.
I am a clinician. Will the notes tell me anything useful?
They are written as observations rather than reassurance: intake, doses and timing, mobility, sleep, mood and anything unusual. Where nursing is involved, a PHSRC-registered nurse records it in the same terms.
Who is accountable if standards slip?
BetterHands is. Carers are employed and payrolled through us, not introduced and forgotten. One team owns the placement, there is a number to ring, and the replacement guarantee has no cap.
Where the care actually happens
Island-wide coverage in Sri Lanka.
BetterHands coordinates carers from our office in Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, just outside Colombo. Placements run island-wide, including Kandy, Galle, Negombo, Matara and Jaffna.
No district loading applies. A placement two hours from the capital costs the same daily rate as one in Colombo 7. Families discharged from the National Hospital of Sri Lanka or private hospitals are transitioned home directly.
BetterHands (Pvt) Ltd
200 Narahenpita - Nawala Rd, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte 11222, Sri Lanka
+94 74 21 21 744Transparent pricing
Membership first, then simple daily rates.
One annual membership covers coordination, payroll and unlimited carer replacements. After that you pay a flat daily rate for the level of care your parents need. Fees are charged in Sri Lankan rupees.
BetterHands Annual Membership
LKR 20,000
One-time annual registration fee
- Unlimited caregiver replacements at no additional cost if you are not satisfied
- Payroll management and caregiver administration
- Ongoing coordination and support from the BetterHands team
- Access to all services covered under the BetterHands membership
Step two — daily service rates
Duties below are what each role normally provides — your care plan is tailored during the free assessment.
Caregiver
Daily living support and companionship
LKR 4,500/day
Most families start here — a parent who is managing, but should not be alone all day.
- Friendly conversation and companionship
- Bathing and personal care assistance (if required)
- Medication reminders and general supervision
- Simple meals and refreshments
- Short walks and light activities (if appropriate)
- Day-to-day assistance and emotional support
Nursing Assistant
Personal care plus basic clinical support
LKR 6,000/day
Common where diabetes, blood pressure or early-stage dementia needs daily monitoring.
- Everything in the caregiver role
- Vital signs monitoring (BP, blood sugar, SpO₂)
- Medication reminders and administration support
- Basic wound and continence care
Professional Nurse
Complex medical and post-operative needs
LKR 9,000/day
Usually after a hospital discharge, a stroke, or where wounds and IV care are involved.
- Everything in the nursing assistant role
- PHSRC-registered clinical nursing
- Wound care, injections, and IV therapy
- Catheter, NG tube, and post-operative care
Daily rates are charged in addition to the one-time annual registration fee of LKR 20,000. The same daily rates apply to day care, night care and live-in support — no shift premiums, no travel supplements for any district. Hospital bystander cover is priced by shift length instead — see that service page for its packages. A free care assessment is provided before any commitment.
A one-way transfer for the caregiver is arranged at the start of placement.
Families we look after
Trusted with the people who raised us.
“BetterHands transformed my mother's quality of life. The caregivers are professional, compassionate, and treat her with so much dignity. Our whole family is relieved and grateful.”
Chamari W.
Colombo 07
“After my father's heart surgery at Lanka Hospitals, the nursing team from BetterHands provided exceptional post-operative care at home. They were thorough, kind, and always on time.”
Roshan & Dilini P.
Nugegoda
“My grandfather was very lonely after being discharged from hospital. His BetterHands companion has become a true friend — he is happier and more engaged than he's been in years.”
Priya N.
Kandy
Questions from Boston
Frequently Asked Questions from Boston Families.
Yes. BetterHands runs a free assessment with your parents in Sri Lanka, matches a carer, and sends a written welfare update after every shift. You approve the plan and pay from the US.
Nine and a half hours in summer and ten and a half in winter, with Colombo ahead. Early morning here is early evening there, which is the most useful window.
No. Itineraries connect through the Gulf, Istanbul or a European hub, and run past twenty-four hours door to door. Winter disruption in New England adds further uncertainty.
No. Medicare almost never pays for care outside the United States, and it covers you rather than a parent overseas. Neither Massachusetts nor any federal programme funds home care in Colombo, so the arrangement is private throughout.
Where a registered nurse is on the placement, yes. Many of our Boston families work in healthcare and prefer a clinical conversation, and we would rather arrange that than translate it for you.
Most placements begin within seventy-two hours of an approved care plan. Where a parent is being discharged from hospital we work to the discharge date instead.
We replace them, with no cap on replacements inside your membership year, and the clinical handover is ours to manage rather than yours.
Yes. Language is a formal matching factor alongside cooking, religious observance, temperament and medical experience, agreed before the placement begins.
BetterHands nurses are registered with Sri Lanka's Private Health Services Regulatory Council. Medicare, Medicaid and any Massachusetts programme cover care delivered in the United States only. Confirm your own position with Medicare.
Knowing what can go wrong makes the distance harder, not easier.
Families who work in medicine describe the same thing: you can picture every complication precisely, and you cannot lay a hand on the patient to check.
A vetted carer in the house, and nursing where the condition calls for it. Written observations after every shift, in the detail you would want from any handover.
The assessment is free and there is nothing to sign. Occasionally we tell a family their parent is doing better than the phone calls suggested. Either way you are reading observations rather than inferring them.
Check it yourself
Sources and further reading for Boston families.
Entitlements and health guidance change. These are the official sources — go to them rather than taking our word for it.
Your parents are in Sri Lanka.
We are already there.
A 15-minute call around your rota, and notes written the way you would want a handover written.
1,000+
Caregiver profiles
96%
First-match success
Trained
Caregiver training
72
Hours to placement