SF’s Laguna Honda Hospital fined $100,000 over patient’s death

San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital has been fined $100,000 for safety violations that led to the death of a patient, the California Public Health Department said Thursday.

The incident occurred in November 2014, when the patient, unnamed in the state report, fell out of his wheelchair while on an outing to a movie theater.

According to the investigation, a hospital staff member — a nurse assistant and driver who has been with Laguna Honda since 2009 — failed to lock both wheels of the patient’s wheelchair and then briefly left the patient alone on a curb.

While the staff member was not looking, the wheelchair rolled off the curb and the patient fell, landing face-first on the ground.

Patient records indicated he should have been in the “line of sight” of hospital staff members at all times when he was in his wheelchair, the state report said.