An independent review of San Francisco General Hospital's security and safety systems will be headed up by facilities and securities experts from UC San Francisco, the Mayor's Office announced Friday.
Mayor Ed Lee announced Thursday that an independent review of the hospital would be conducted to find out how a missing patient's body was discovered in a stairwell Oct. 8.
Lee did not say Thursday who would conduct the review.
Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, who surveyed the hospital Oct. 8, the day Lynne Spalding's body was discovered, pledged his support Friday of the independent review. The Sheriff's Office is conducting its own internal investigation of its operations at the hospital. Spalding, 57, was admitted to the hospital Sept. 19 when she came there with her boyfriend and 23-year-old daughter. She had been losing weight and didn't appear to be herself, said family spokesman David Perry, who added that she may have been suffering from some kind of infection.
On Sept. 21, Spalding, whose condition was improving, disappeared from her hospital bed 15 minutes after a nurse attended to her. After she disappeared from her fifth-floor bed, a search of the unit, hospital and campus was undertaken.
Her body was found Oct. 8 by a hospital engineer doing a regularly scheduled inspection of an emergency exit stairwell that is on the outside of the building.
Foul play has been ruled out of the case, according to Perry. The cause, manner and time of death remain under investigation by the Medical Examiner's Office.
