Patients Stealing $52M Worth of Items from Hospitals, Says Survey

Parker recommends not overstocking patient rooms to minimize the impact of the thefts. "When people go to a hotel and there are three or four bottles of shampoo, people will take them, thinking they paid for them," he says. "Bed linens, water pitchers, are things that aren't charged to a patient. It's overhead for the hospital. So anything you can do to put less in the room, as long as the patients' needs are met, is what you need to do.

Parker says his cost estimates don't include theft of hospital equipment by employees. He estimates that the theft of surgical scrub suits, for example, is an even bigger issue that patient thefts.

"That is thousands of dollars, maybe tens of thousands of dollars. If I had to point to the one thing that was taken the most in hospitals, it's scrubs, and 99% of it is employees," he says.