By Special to Healthcare Facilities Today

Federally ordered changes have been made at San Francisco General Hospital following the death of a patient who was found in a stairwell at the hospital last October, according to an article on the San Francisco Examiner's website.

The hospital recently released fixes and plans to address problems outlined by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that contributed to the death of 57-year-old Lynne Spalding.

Spalding was admitted to SFGH on Sept. 19 with an infection. She went missing two days later. Eventually she was found dead in a fourth-floor stairwell on Oct. 8, after a massive Bay Area-wide search effort.

The sheriff's department, which provides security at SFGH, was asked to search the entire campus after Spalding had been missing for more than a week. But it was later determined that the search only included half the stairwells, even though staff had been instruction to search everywhere. Sheriff's officials also failed to follow up on a report made on Oct. 4 of a person lying in a stairwell in the hospital, the article said.

It has also been revealed that there were technical problems with security alarms and surveillance cameras.

The hospital has since undergone several reviews of the facility's procedures and safety and security systems, according to the article. 

The hospital's policy on missing or at-risk patients has since been modified to include a script for staff to follow to ensure accuracy when reporting a patient leaving the hospital before treatment is complete.

Read the article.