Hospital hoarders and pack rats

[DesiDani]

I work in a hospital and we will get patients who like to hoard things. They get upset if thou dare remove their property (usually hospital stuff).

So how do you deal with them and get them agree to clutter a bit.

Finally, what was the worst patient pack rat seen?

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

Hospital hoarders never bother me.

There's always a reason even if it makes no sense.

Usually that reason is deprivation, and that makes me sad.

So I just let them do what they need to do.

I worked in a LTC where one of the residents would collect napkins.

It didn't matter if they were dirty or not. She'd walk around the dining room and collect as many as she could. Her room/drawers/closet were stuffed with them.

When the sweep happened, and I understand it had to, she'd literally sob in anguish.

I understood her loss.

[djh123]

I'm at a LTC facility, and one of my CNA's found 10 packs of 'wipies' in a resident's nightstand recently. The resident said she was going to 'give them to my daughter' - as if we're a supplier for people's home use.

[annabanana2]

I do home visits and plenty of my clients hoard various things because 98% of them live in truly crushing poverty. I don't blame them one bit. I do, however, often go through folks' fridges quite shamelessly and very strongly encourage the removal of rotten/spoiled food.

I remember visiting one client who had been in the hospital for a couple of weeks and I went to see him right after he got home. He had various containers of food and drink all over his home, including a litre of milk that was long since spoiled sitting on his nightstand in the summer heat. He was very sensitive about getting rid of things so I had to prioritize the worst of the worst and was asking permission to remove the milk. I told him it was very clearly spoiled, I could hear the chunks rattling around in there when I shook it and there were cockroaches crawling all over it. He said "give that to me" and so, stupidly, I did, only to watch in horror as he took a big swig of it. It was like it was happening in slow motion, I literally jumped in the air and shrieked "NOOOOOO!" waving my hands around like he was about to wander off a cliff. He swallowed, thoughtfully, and said "yeah, okay, you can get rid of that," as if it were, you know, just a little off.

Another time I visited a very mentally ill woman for wound care and she lived in the most bug-infested home I had ever been in. I glanced at the counter and thought I saw a black pot for plants. Nope, turns out it was actually a purple yogurt container, it just looked black because it was 100% covered in cockroaches and other bugs. We'd take down her dressings and bugs would crawl out. And she absolutely could not be convinced to get rid of any old food whatsoever.

[dishes, BSN, RN]

@annabanana hoarding and infestations are the two reasons I cannot do homecare.

[stevie22]

Haha yes!!! Saving all their food from breakfast, lunch, and dinner!!

[BonnieSc]

Food hoarders I can deal with: honestly I don't fuss about it too much. If I see old food, I take it out--usually just saying "I'm going to take this old food out". I can't remember that I've ever seen food brought from home create a problem. Never seen enough jelly packets to make a problem.

Old people or immigrants who hate waste or worry about deprivation: I get them. I can usually talk them through it. ("It seems awful to throw it away, doesn't it? But I really need to keep it clean and clear in here so we have room to take care of you. I'll tell them not to send so much jelly next time.") That's a different problem from what I see as true hoarding that's a mental illness or personality disorder (not sure about the actual psychological classification right now)...

Those people are really sad for me to take care of. I remarked once that the rooms of people who hoard in-hospital are the most depressing thing I've ever seen at work (med-surg in county hospitals: I've seen a lot). You can clean and declutter their room daily and still, a few hours later you'll see them slowly starting to accumulate their things, often in a sort of ritualistic way. It's amazing how quickly they can turn their hospital rooms into a version of what I think their homes must be like. And the anger at staff trying to interfere... I get that it's a mental health problem and that it's not simple and the way to help them isn't just to take the garbage away, and yet I just don't have time (or training) to work on a hoarding problem while I'm trying to care for more acute issues. One of the hardest was a patient in for weeks for repair of a pressure sore who wanted to keep every piece of every dressing kit that hadn't been used, every newspaper, etc. She said the sun bothered her so we let her put cardboard over the window. It built up little by little until one day I walked into that dark, crowded room and realized she had literally turned it into something from Hoarders--and we had enabled it. We liked her, we wanted her to be comfortable, it wasn't worth the anger she turned on us if we tried to throw something away, we all have twinges of distaste about wasting hospital supplies that don't end up being used... it all played into the problem. We practically needed a cleaning crew when she left.

Another case was the opposite: a very short-term patient. I think she'd only been in overnight when I met her. Her boyfriend stayed in the room with her, as many do. They seemed like very nice, regular people, and we had a good talk about a movie we'd all seen recently. Yet somehow overnight they'd managed to turn that room into a sixteen-year-old boy's bedroom... totally trashed with papers, pizza boxes, books, DVDs, Taco Bell wrappers, spilled soda, magazines, you name it. And they didn't even seem to notice. I'm an avid user of libraries, but when I saw some of the books strewn around the hospital room were library books, for the first time it gave me second thoughts.

[DoGoodThenGo]

Real sad thing about all this hoarding at least as it relates to healthcare professionals and or system is that we *all* end up paying for this hoarding. Be it via insurance, Medicare and or Medicaid all that food and other supplies that are hoarded then discarded is just waste built into the system.

If a patient has enough sugar or Sweet -n- Low packets in or on their bedside table to supply a small diner, they don't need anymore. Yet each meal time more will certainly arrive. Ditto for everything else mentioned from jelly packets to whatever. If not used, spoils and or otherwise is not used and discarded that is all money down the drain. Being rather frugal by nature it would break my heart back in the day to clear out a bedside table/room after a patient died or was discharged and was told to throw away scores of unused but still new things. Why can't they be "reused" I'd ask? Because of fears of contamination, they have been in another patient's room......

You want to really see waste and or hoarding speak with nurses or aides that do home care. Often you'll find stacks and stacks of diapers, Chux, wipes, alcohol swabs, etc.. with more ordered and or arriving like clock work if ordered. This regardless of what is needed and or used. If patient expires or whatever family members put the stuff on eBay or Craigslist, sell it on, or dole out to family/friends. Again these are supplies we all have paid for via insurance/Medicare/Medicaid.

A lot of this rot started when things moved away from central supply towards disposables. While am sure there are sound fiscal and other reasons for such changes, you have to wonder how much is really saved when so much is either not used but discarded and or not used wisely.

[BonnieSc]

The things you describe don't really have anything to do with HOARDING, though... that's just a mess, or wasteful. If nurses/aides/whoever aren't careful about bringing too many supplies into a room, or if in a long-term care situation supplies come by order, that's different from a patient being pathological.

Those patients--if there weren't disposable hospital supplies around, they'd be hoarding something else. Newspapers, the little cards to mark your menu on, empty kleenex boxes, dry whiteboard markers. They'd hide the butter knives from their trays just to have a collection of stuff.

[dream'n, BSN, RN]

Slightly off topic, but I can't handle watching "Hoarders". I would be a terrible therapist for a hoarder. I just want to grab a shovel and get that crap outta there, probably psychologically damaging the hoarder because of it. I just wouldn't have the patience. i get upset just watching it on TV, I'm like "hurry up, we're not going to let you examine every icky thing." I could never do that job.

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

I tend to be a food hoarder. I grew up in pretty significant poverty where food was not always first choice by my mother. Collectibles, drugs, and alcohol came first.

I don't keep spoiled food, but I keep my fridge, freezer, and pantry over stocked. My husband grew up in a house where this wasn't an issue and he hates clutter so we are always in an endless battle.

I understand why people hoard however, when it comes to the point food is sitting out rotting, it's gotta go. I'll try to reason so they throw it away. If that doesn't work I'll pitch it.

I don't stress about ketchup packets, salt, pepper, etc. I stick with the dangerous stuff, because I understand.

[CBlover, BSN, RN]

Recently had one who insisted she carry her empty tissue box [now] stuffed with salt and sugar packets with her to the bathroom.

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

Recently had one who insisted she carry her empty tissue box [now] stuffed with salt and sugar packets with her to the bathroom.

That's gross. Maybe they are afraid you'll throw them away if they don't?