S.F. General, Sheriff's Dept. blamed in Lynne Spalding death
San Francisco General Hospital nurses failed to act on a doctor's order that Lynne Spalding be watched around the clock before she walked away from her room last fall, and at least one sheriff's deputy who was told to search the hospital stairwells said he understood it to be something he could do if he had "free time," according to a federal agency's investigation into her death.
Both the hospital and the Sheriff's Department share in the blame for the death of Spalding, whose body was found in a stairwell more than two weeks after she vanished from her room Sept. 21, investigators concluded. The stairwell where she was found was never searched before a worker stumbled onto her body during a routine check.
No emergency plan
The probe was conducted by state health inspectors on behalf of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - the federal agency that decides whether hospitals meet minimum standards to be eligible for Medicare payments - and involved interviews of dozens of hospital staffers and sheriff's deputies. The report has not been publicly released but was obtained by The Chronicle.
It found "systemic" failures at the hospital and said officials there never worked out an emergency plan with the Sheriff's Department. That created the risk of a "chaotic and poorly coordinated" response such as the one that led to Spalding's death, the report said.
full: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-General-Sheriff-s-Dept-blamed-in-Lynne-5197170.php
