Hospital hoarders and pack rats

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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?

Where I work, patients sometimes feel the loss of control. The only way they can feel in control is with food. They order 3-4 trays, then don't eat, but refuse to allow you to take the trays out. One patient was so bad that she was prohibited from ordering more than 3 meals and 2 snacks a day

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Specializes in ICU.

Some seniors might be living on 11-12,000 a year of social security so counting every penny and being frugal is a way of life. I know it's not hoarding, but if they stash some toilet paper or condiments it's okay with me.

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Where I work, patients sometimes feel the loss of control. The only way they can feel in control is with food. They order 3-4 trays, then don't eat, but refuse to allow you to take the trays out. One patient was so bad that she was prohibited from ordering more than 3 meals and 2 snacks a day

The sense of no control is a big thing for many patients. We do take away most of the control they have over their lives, so any way they can get it back they will. I have seen the extra tray thing too.

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They are not just hoarders, some of them are thieves. They pack gloves, lotions, comb, toothpaste, towels, and everything they can get and take them home. A patient stole one of our nurses Samsung note 4 from her jacket which she hung around her seat. I think those who pack food items are just insecured. If you try to stop them, they complain and lie on you. I leave them alone.

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Specializes in critical care,rapid response.

The worst one I ever experienced was this lady that had her windowsill lined with flowers and plants. You'd walk by and think she must have an incredible support system -- all those plants! A nurse discovered that she had been hoarding all kinds of linens, basic supplies,etc. When security reviewed their footage, they discovered she had been going outside and digging up plants from around the hospital then putting them in styrofoam cups when she returned to her room.

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Here in NYC at least for home situations if things are deemed to be reaching "Collyer Brothers" level ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyer_brothers) landlords or a condo/co-op board can and or often will take steps to force a clean out of said apartment. This has come in the wake of some very serious adverse outcomes including death where places were so packed with "junk" it was deemed to be a safety and or health hazard.

We have lost not only persons but firefighters here due to hoarding conditions: Hoarding Makes Fires Worse - The Atlantic

So much so now the FDNY and or City can and will respond to reported hoarding conditions. If the person or persons in question are seniors and or those deemed unable to care for themselves/carry out ADL either assistance will be arranged or in extreme situations they will be moved into some type of care home. If possible family members are contacted and basically informed to either clear the place out or a court order will be secured and it will be done regardless.

Again here in NYC once a home care patient has a reputation as a hoarder it can be difficult to impossible to get anyone (nurses or home health aides) to take the assignment. More so if it involves 24 hour-living in shifts.

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I've never been in that kind of situation with a patient. I don't let it develop.

I clean trash, food, and clutter OUT. If it's a personal item, it goes into a drawer or in the closet. If it's multiples of hospital issued stuff, it goes in the trash. If it's food, it goes in the trash in the kitchen.

I'm a big believer in removing fomites. I don't care who gets mad, infection control comes first. And to those nasty patients that save used dressings, STOP IT! What you are doing is DISGUSTING!!

I cleaned out my resident's rooms when I was a CNA, too. We had one lady, Nellie, who was like a shark. She was constantly on the move, looking for food. I'd see the top of her head moving through the dining room and I'd hear the Jaws theme in my head. She would take other resident's desserts and hide them in a towel she kept in her lap. Once she got to her room, she'd stash them. I cleaned out half eaten stuff every night.

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My Mother was the kind of patient you are talking about. She did hoard food but the family tried to clean out her stash whenever we were there. My mother grew up during the depression and knew what it was like to do without. However, in her later years, she never had to worry about having enough food, clothes, sheets, towels etc. My pet peeve with mother was that she kept all Kleenex, napkins and any other paper products that managed to find their way into her room. We would empty 1-2 grocery bags full of tissues at least once a week.

As for the food, we tossed the fruits and any opened items. Hoarding is an illness and it got worse as she developed mild dementia.

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The worst one I ever experienced was this lady that had her windowsill lined with flowers and plants. You'd walk by and think she must have an incredible support system -- all those plants! A nurse discovered that she had been hoarding all kinds of linens, basic supplies,etc. When security reviewed their footage, they discovered she had been going outside and digging up plants from around the hospital then putting them in styrofoam cups when she returned to her room.

the linen company charges us (the hospital) for that stuff.

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Specializes in retired LTC.
When security reviewed their footage, they discovered she had been going outside and digging up plants from around the hospital then putting them in styrofoam cups when she returned to her room.
Now this would be one of the funnier things I've read in a long time if it weren't so sad. :wideyed:
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My very own grandmother is a hoarder. Yes, she lived during the depression. However, she was in a family who was very well off, so her needs never went unmet during a time when many families were penniless, homeless, without a reliable food source, etc. She likes to think it was a time of crisis for her family, but her siblings definitely confirmed they were comfortable and even had luxuries.

Her hoarding is largely due to mental illness. She also has serious anxiety issues and takes enough ativan to snow an elephant. She was at one point sort of a doomsday hoarder before the year 2000, but she did it poorly. She hoarded long since expired food goods, and lots of it. I know some foodstuffs can last for a long time, but not what she squirreled away. She also hoarded supplies, such as a dozens of laterns. There truly was so much more to her stash, but I think I've repressed all the crap I had to sort through. Thankfully, during that period, hoarding was limited to her garage. Eventually, she couldn't park one car in there, then both. My grandfather kept it out of the rest of the house.

After 2000 came and went without worldwide destruction, she turned to attention to filling up the house. My grandfather could no longer put a stop to it, as his early Alzheimer's and limited mobility from bad knees took a toll. I wish I could say it was hoarding with anything useful. Many books. Many sewing supplies. Enough holiday decorations for a mansion. The living areas of the house were beautiful, clean and neat. The first room to be filled was the (very large) room my sister and I bunked in as children, to the ceiling. Then another guest room filled up. Then the office.

It was a nightmare moving them out of that house and into an elder independent apartment, in the end. It was my father and I doing the work, her other adult children can't be bothered to lift a finger to help unless they get something valuable out of it. So many grandmother tears, so many dumpsters filled. And yet we couldn't get away without filling three storage units full of 'precious' belongings. Her apartment, filled up quickly with junk. I am shocked my grandfather never fell with their living quarters basically being the embodiment of a fall risk nightmare. Especially with his increasing confusion and even more impaired mobility towards the end of his life.

My grandmother eventually suffered a fall became unable to care for herself, and moved into a nursing home. But she does a fantastic job hoarding there, too. It is like her horrible superpower. So many nursing home rooms are beautiful and homey. Not hers. Every horizontal surface is piled with boxes upon boxes of junk. She hides away food now, too. The nurse's aides there told me they thought she was hiding baked goods, since she never seemed to eat them. She enough, I foud a drawer of disgusting, rotten, moldy breads, cookies, and muffuns. The only way we can clear out some of the junk is to say management said there is a "fire risk" and we remove some of the stuff to a manageable level. It'll build up again though, it always does. Keeping on top of it is exhausting.

I suspect if she lands herself in a hospital room, she'd be a hoarder there too as best she can. Whatever she can collect and hide away during her stay, she will. She'll tuck away denture tablets and tissues (she's been know to empty the box, stuff them somewhere, and get a new box, and repeat), stack empty cups or hide away a can of ensure she took a single sip from. But I'll be there to keep that my family's curse. I don't want a nurse or aide to have to deal with it. I want the fire to be directed at me rather than the person providing her care while in the hospital, since she is still mentally competent enough to lodge a complaint if a nurse angered her.

Wow, writing about this made me weary!

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Taiin and Allie, thanks for sharing your stories. I think you really show how it is not a simple matter to keep those rooms clean and clear.

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