Who do you call if your family member passes away at home?

Nojoy, most states require that "no code" has her MD's signature on it. Some states call it a MOLST form. Be sure you check your state laws and you have the right form with the right signatures.

My Mom died at home in Oregon. She had breast cancer and was known to be terminally ill, but she was not on Hospice. When she died (which was expected), we called her doctor's office and the funeral home where she had made previous arrangements. The funeral home respectfully sent someone to come and pick her up in the evening when removal "wouldn't be a spectacle for the neighbors" (her specific wish). No 911. No hospice. No problems. But, of course, she WAS under the care of a doctor and known to be terminally ill. If my Dad, who has dementia but is otherwise physically pretty healthy, were to die at home, I'm not sure how this would go. I assume it isn't possible to get someone "on hospice" who is not terminally ill with death expected imminently (as in, within weeks or months), even if they are DNR?

Thank you all for that information, I always thought it was 911 - I was told by a nurse to just push the DNR paper right in their face before they take a step in the door.

Thanks for your answers. Mom is not on hospice and I'm not expecting her to check out soon. It doesn't seem reasonable to call 911 if a person is deceased but that may be the only option. I'm sure different states have different regulations. She has an advanced directive. This is just a question I've had in the back of my mind, always like to be prepared for the "what if's".

A person dies at home and you have to call 911, who sends the coroner to actually declare the person dead. This can take several hours. In the meantime the police will interrogate everyone. Sometimes they are not very nice about it. The body goes to the morgue for autopsy, which takes a few days. You wait.
A patient on Hospice dies at home. You call the Hospice Nurse. She is there within an hour. She signs a death certificate. She will even call the funeral home for you.
Which way would you rather do this?

One good benefit of having hospice care at end-of-life is you make one call, to them, and they take care of all the details as they've discussed with you earlier.

And they'd probably want to do an autopsy, too, so they can determine the true cause of death.

Your other option is better: contact hospice. When death occurs, the hospice nurse will notify the physician of the time of death, and you can simply call the funeral directors to come. The doctor will prepare the Death Certificate and notify the appropriate parties. You do not want to call 911. If you do, they may well ignore your DNR paperwork and cart your family member off to the nearest ER, where the death declaration will need to be made and the Certificate completed by the attending physician on duty. This happens a lot.

call 911, and have in hand a do-not-resuscitate document if it exists. The call the funeral home.