Discussions

I have had patients loose all sorts of things. Yes occasionally it is theft. Most of the time not .Mostly personal stuff is simply lost. Example pt lost wedding ring, could have come off in the bed linen and gone down to laundry,could have fell off the bedside table into garbage. You would be surprised what winds up where.I had a patients stuffed animal go down to the laundry as it got rolled up in the blankets when bed was stripped. We got him back by phoning laundry thank God.Dentures are my favorite they often get left on the meal trays . Pt take them out and forget. Makes a nice surprise for the dietary staff too. They often phone the floor with I foud a pair of dentures on atray anyone missing theirs? If the tray has the paper slip still on it with pts name etc great but if not ,who the heck knows who they belong to.Sometimes I have had to remove rings to prevent circulation restriction due to swelling. I always chart it though and I tell the patientI have sent it to security .Sometimes things are removed in emergency when you come in. Now lets face it when they are trying to save your life they arent too concerned about where your watch etc wind up but they do their best. Often personel property gets sent home with family for safe keeping. I have had pt missing their wallet all to find out that staff have sent it home with family.Or family had just taken it to look after for the time being.Shoes and socks go missing alot they get left on stretchers etc on the bottom. It happens! I have also admitted older people with huge amounts of cash in their wallet. What the heck are you doing walking around with an excess of $700.00 cash in your wallet.? That gets sent immediately to security where it is locked up with a claim tag with pt name an identification number etc. Pt gets copy of claim ticket .It is put in pts chart or pt keeps it as long as they are capable of looking after it.the security brings item back to pt and corresponding numbers are verified and item is then returned to pt. PT signs they have recieved item when they are discharged.Should it happen that pt does not survive. The item is held by security until the executor of the estate or POA claims it.So if you are coming to hospital leave your valuables at home. Staff are busy and are priorising care for a lot of people not just one. We cant keep track of everyones stuff. If you come in as emergency ,thatsa bit different. Hopefully family is with you to take your stuff otherwise it has the potential to get lost. With rgards to housekeeping .I love the housekeeping staff if it werent for them ,My God my job would be hellish. They are the backbone of the hospital as well as all the other support staff. The bed staff and regular cleaning staff often go out of their way for the patients and for the nursing staff. I dont care if they have a title or not,they are great.I have had people from other cities come to our facility and comment on how clean our hospital is. SOO hats off to our housekeeping.Finally everyone who works at the hospital has to have criminal record check and abuse registry check.So lets face it, its not staff as rule.