Residents missing clothes?

anniern2010 · Feb 20, 2013

At our LTC home, the clothes are sent to be washed, and then put on a cart to be redistributed by the night staff in the pt's rooms. Some of the staff weren't careful and didn't check the name tags, so some of the clothes ended up in other resident's rooms, never to be seen again (until a "careful" staff member would notice). The family members made so many complaints about missing clothes I got fed up, threatened to spot check the staff, and do some write up's.

Needless to say, this task is really simple, and requires almost no effort, so staff started to pay attention and everything went a little smoother from there. Also, I didn't have to write anyone up!

If you are in an Alzheimer unit, forget about it... Clothes and things will go missing... It WILL happen... A lot. We have a box full of stuff with about a dozen items of clothing and 10 pairs of glasses and have no idea who they belong to...lol

It sucks that stuff goes missing, but in your case, I guess you will have to backtrack and investigate to see where the problem stems from. :)

amoLucia · Feb 21, 2013

Along with the eyeglasses, I'm astounded by the Lost & Found Denture Box!!!

Lost and misplaced cloting items are sooo common to nursing homes--- more or less to varying degrees per facility. Worst offenders are missing socks (stockings) and T-shirts. Where do they all go??? That great laundry bin in the sky?

Who in their right mind wants to steal nasty old socks and old T-shirts? But new ones, in unopened packs??? Sad to say, I do think there some theft goes on. I cringe whenever I see lovely new nightgowns and pretty sweaters that the ladies receive at holiday time. Toiletries. some jewelriy pieces & watches, little clocks & radios. Mens apparel is not immune either.

I don't know how to stop the thefts - except to prohibit staff from briinging in their bags. Or to frisk staff as they leave. (But even then, sneaky people will figure out ways...) Not every place has employee lockers - I have to bring in my sack with me as it carries my equip, lunch, water, sanitary stuff, etc. To me, UNLABELLED stuff is the biggest contributor to the loss problems. And it makes for easier theft.

Availability of real LAUNDRY markers (not color crayon-markers) at the nsg desk area would help.

I did see one really innovative approach by one daughter (after multiple losees of her mom's jogging suits). She embroidered MARY down one arm and SMITH down the other arm on the top, and MARY down one leg and SMITH down the other leg of the pants. Sad that she had to take such extreme measures! But it worked! And I have seen other extreme approaches.

It beats being accused by one family that our staff was stealing undies to sell at the local flea market... (for real!).

GLORIAmunchkin72 · Feb 22, 2013

Even with names they do get mixed up. Some residents end up with clothes they don't recognize in their closets.

amoLucia · Feb 22, 2013

I've also seen confused forgetful residents wander into others' rooms and rummage thru those closets and drawers. They then gather items NOT their's. They just think their stuff was missing or stolen - can only wait until the episode passes over for the staff to retrieve the items.

allnurses Guide · Feb 23, 2013

That's so frustrating.

Our laundry is done in-house, yet we still have a huge problem with residents never getting

their clothes back. The laundry is locked up at night, so we can't just go in and get what

we need; we have to depend on the laundry staff to distribute the clothes and half the

time they don't. No amount of complaining seems to help either.

Li'lRedHeadRN · Feb 28, 2013

KRODD somehow it makes me feel better to know that I am not alone with this situation. I can't quite understand where the laundry goes ~ but the families often approach me when it's missing. We had a situation where we think a male resident stole a bra from a very vocal female patient with memory loss. Every chance she got she would say to ANYONE who would listen, "Someone stole my bra! Who would do that??" Funniest thing was when the ED walked on the unit and she told him her plight. He didn't know what to say...

ktwlpn, LPN · Mar 2, 2013

I did see one really innovative approach by one daughter (after multiple losees of her mom's jogging suits). She embroidered MARY down one arm and SMITH down the other arm on the top, and MARY down one leg and SMITH down the other leg of the pants. Sad that she had to take such extreme measures! But it worked! And I have seen other extreme approache[/QUOT ] I realize this issue is frustrating but the dtr just robbed her mother of every shred of dignity,IMHO. We had a similar situation several years ago-the resident's sister wrote the resident's name on the back and across the shoulders of several new sweaters she brought in for her.Not only did the DOH ding us (we were undergoing our annual inspection) but then the resident's husband came in,saw the sweaters and was horrified.He and his sister in law stopped speaking so a few years later when they resident was dying the bedside vigil was a little uncomfortable, to say the least. This kind of thing happens everywhere -I worked in a smallish for-profit years ago that washed each resident's clothing individually.This worked well except in situations where you had mobile demented residents "shopping" on the unit.I'm at a fairly large LTC now-we have so much used clothing donated and stockpiled that the resident is offered a replacement when something goes missing.Often the item has been put in the wrong closet-I don't understand the problem,even if you can barely read you only have to match the tag in the clothes to the name in the closet or drawer.If we gave meds like they put away laundry all of our beds would be empty.