Patients who steal from the ER

ernurse728, LPN · Jul 17, 2005

We actually have people come in off the street...and not necessarily homeless people...wait for the locked doors to open to get back into the ER and steal food from the dietary room!

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Jul 18, 2005

I remember one druggie trying to steal meds. The only thing he got was vial of Dopamine, He thought it sounded like good stuff. Fortunately for him he got caught before using it.

NoCrumping · Jul 18, 2005

We have plastic belongings bags and one evening we had this lady truck out with two of them filled with linens. The only reason we caught her was because she demanded a cab voucher and swore at me when I offered her a bus pass instead. If she had just kept her mouth shut, she would have gotten away. We called the police and she was arrested PLUS she had outstanding warrants.

The police were called for a bag of linens? You do realize that they are, literally, bought for pennies each? And, oh yeah, the money doesnt even come out of your pocket????? Dont get me wrong, I dont go around advocating theft, but unless they are stealing drugs, or something large and valuable,(that is right in front of me, and I am responsible for it) I could not care less. I'm sure there isn't any hospital out there going to even say thank you for catching people "steal" these things. And besides, nursing is enough to deal with , let alone being a "store detective'. I wish I had the time.

CritterLover, BSN, RN · Jul 18, 2005

the police were called for a bag of linens? you do realize that they are, literally, bought for pennies each? and, oh yeah, the money doesnt even come out of your pocket????? dont get me wrong, i dont go around advocating theft, but unless they are stealing drugs, or something large and valuable,(that is right in front of me, and i am responsible for it) i could not care less. i'm sure there isn't any hospital out there going to even say thank you for catching people "steal" these things. and besides, nursing is enough to deal with , let alone being a "store detective'. i wish i had the time.

[i take it then that you have never worked in a hospital with a "linen conservation committee"? :chuckle don't laugh too hard, two of the hospitals i have worked in have them. apparently, facilities are getting pretty uptight about the number of linens that we [i]use[/i] in a day, let alone what is walking out the door. one surgical icu i worked (night weekends) in routinely ran out of sheets/pillowcases/blue pads on my shift. i'm not exactly sure what they thought we were going to do when the diarrhea started running, but we used to have to beg stuff from the or.

completely agree with you about the time issue, though.

as for people stealing from the er, see it all the time when i work there. once had a ff kidney stone pt come in with an attack. he had some sort of congenital malformation of his urinary tract and truly did battle with kidney stones every year or so. he stated that he felt like he had one, and though he had an appt with his urologist the next morning, he came to the er to have his ct done and "speed things along." he had the misfortune of getting our "no pain meds" doc, but the doc read his chart and gave him some phenergan/dilaudid and ordered his ct. pt was first upset because i 1)diluted the drugs and 2)pushed them too slow (as an aside, to those of you who have asked in other threads how to tell a drug seeker from a patient legitimetly in pain, this is a big clue -- now i never pretend to know what someone else's pain is -- if you tell me your head hurts, i believe you -- but to me, arguing with me to push your phenergan like i would push adenosine is a sign).

so anyway, his ct scan comes back clean. no stone in the works. (not to say he couldn't have been having pain anyway). he is really upset. i couldn't get rid of him at first. when he finally did leave, i go back in the room to see he went through the trash and took the used syringes i used to draw up the meds (no needles attached) and the half-empty phenergan vial. lesson learned: 1/2 empty vials now always go in the sharps container, even though they aren't sharp.

we also can't keep remote controls around. rx pads get stolen, too when one of the docs get careless (oh, but the rxs people write for themselves are so amusing!) those big ol' ob pads also tend to grow legs along with tubes of ky jelly. and i can't count how many patients have asked to keep their gowns ("they are so good to lie around the house and watch tv in")

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Jul 18, 2005

The police were called for a bag of linens? You do realize that they are, literally, bought for pennies each? And, oh yeah, the money doesnt even come out of your pocket????? Dont get me wrong, I dont go around advocating theft, but unless they are stealing drugs, or something large and valuable,(that is right in front of me, and I am responsible for it) I could not care less. I'm sure there isn't any hospital out there going to even say thank you for catching people "steal" these things. And besides, nursing is enough to deal with , let alone being a "store detective'. I wish I had the time.

Pennies add up over time.

Besides, it's the principle of it, not necessarily the money.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Jul 18, 2005

Oh, yeah, we have a LCC as well. :stone

BabyRN2Be · Jul 18, 2005

People walk out from OB with linens and the little baby stethoscopes all the time.
Since I've worked in the ED I've had a couple young girls try to leave with scrub bottoms on, not to mention patients that go with whatever they can hide under their clothes- whether they know what it is or not.

Yeah, I see this a lot. There's a reason why we have very few pillows available on the L&D unit and it's not because someone forgot to order them.

June55Baby · Jul 18, 2005

A couple of years back, one of the clerks in ER received flowers from her boyfriend. The flowers were sitting on a desk in an out of the way area of the ER when they disappeared.

When security reviewed the closed circuit video, there was a FF patient taking the flowers. Security called her and asked her to return the flowers. The patient got all huffy but said she would have her sister bring them back, because they were dead anyway!!

The audacity of people never ceases to amaze me!

JohnRN04 · Jul 19, 2005

People walk out from OB with linens and the little baby stethoscopes all the time.
Since I've worked in the ED I've had a couple young girls try to leave with scrub bottoms on, not to mention patients that go with whatever they can hide under their clothes- whether they know what it is or not.

linens, alcohol pads, tape, is the least of our problems. What about these people coming in getting free healthcare?

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2005

linens, alcohol pads, tape, is the least of our problems. What about these people coming in getting free healthcare?

And how is people coming in and getting free health care a problem for you. And why is it a problem for you. This is a great country and everyone is entitled to health care regardless of their ability to pay for it. I cant see why this poses a problem for you.

snowfreeze, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2005

Entitlement syndrome, we are entitleted to everything because we are. No respect for others, just grandiose respect for self.

Aquamarine · Jul 21, 2005

Before I was working as an RN I worked in a busy ER in a major medical center at night. I loved it. I just came back from vacation and had been using an insulated bag that I use for my lunch as my purse also. I did not have time to empty it so I just threw my lunch in it. I had it so far under my desk I had to crawl under there to get it so I assumed it was safe. On my first day back after vacation a drug addict came out of the treatment area and went under there and got it. She had to go behind a big counter and out of the patient area to do that. I can only figure she saw me put it under there when I came to work...I never noticed her. She ran out of the hospital with my lunch, my credit cards, keys, money etc. A patient I had helped earlier noticed what this girl had done and went and got security quickly. Thank God we had just gotten a young group of security guards. They were physically fit and were able to run out of the hopsital and caught her at the bus stop with my bag under her shirt. She cried and cried, begged me not to press charges...I did. She even tried to say she found it and was coming back to return it...She had been through "drug court" before so I am hoping they through the book at her. She came to court dressed up like a lady, a two ppiece dress and pearls!!!. She ususally looks like a nut case.

Another time in a dialysis unit I worked in a patients wife would take items all the time. She even brought in photos to share with scrubs on from the hopital. What darn nerve. I just don't know how people can justify doing it. It is accepted in a lot of situations. We were told to report it but really no one cares...it isn't coming out of thier pocketbook. Then you look like a fool to report it, or a trouble maker.

Another incident was when I was working in the dialysis unit and dietary brought up a tray of fresh fruit (dialysis patients don't eat fresh friuit) ordered by a nurse. It was loaded, about 24 items. I got the requisition and saw what nurse did it...it was for his own use. He used to steal milkshakes and milks and his back pack and jacket pockets were full. They did nothing about it.

That hospital is in so much trouble now financially it is threatened to close.They should keep better tabs on things and have a no tolerance rule.

I know how upsetting it is about your stethoscope and I am sorry it had to happen to you. I have been ripped off so many times I try to take no chances.

Nancy

:uhoh21:

I have seen Patients walk out with tape, linens and pillows. Even saline and syringes. But, this was the ultimate.
I saw a patient who had been discharge from the ER go in to one of the triage rooms and when I went in a few minutes later, my cardiology stethescope was gone. I loved that sethescope. I bought it when I had to scrape the money together to buy a nice one and now it is gone.
We do so much for people and they repay us by stealing. Maybe the public does not realize that we have to buy our our equipment and uniforms.
Would love to hear from similar victims of patient gratitude.