( CNN ) -- No one ordered a full search for a missing San Francisco hospital patient until nine days after she disappeared , authorities say . Nine days . In that time , Lynne Spalding Ford 's family scoured the city and passed out thousands of fliers -- only to find out she was dead in a stairwell at the same hospital . Now , authorities have revealed a series of mishaps leading up to the discovery of Spalding Ford 's body at San Francisco General Hospital -- 17 days after she was reported missing . Lawyer : Hospital staffer saw body in stairwell days earlier . Exactly when and how Spalding Ford died remains a mystery . But more clues are surfacing about her final days : . September 19 . Spalding Ford , 57 , checks into San Francisco General Hospital for a bladder infection . September 21 . A hospital employee calls the sheriff 's department in the morning and says Spalding Ford has been missing for 40 minutes , San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi said . The caller also describes the patient as African-American -- even though the patient is later described as Asian in a sheriff 's department log book . The sheriff 's department oversees security on the hospital 's campus . Authorities make a perimeter search of the hospital grounds , but deputies did n't immediately classify the woman as a missing person . Later that day , evening shift deputies stationed at the hospital did n't get briefed about Spalding Ford from the earlier deputies . September 25 . Four days after Spalding Ford 's disappearance , the San Francisco Police Department asks the sheriff 's department to pull surveillance video to see if there are any images of the patient leaving . September 26 . The sheriff 's department tries to look through the surveillance footage , but ca n't `` due to hardware problems , '' Mirkarimi said . The vendor responsible for maintaining the video equipment was notified . September 30 . Nine days after Spalding Ford went missing , the hospital asked sheriff 's deputies to search its entire 24-acre campus . But that search did n't include all stairwells . October 1 . After realizing not all stairwells had been searched , a deputy and staff went to scour the stairwells . But only about half of them were searched . October 3 . The video equipment vendor manages to recover surveillance video from the hard drive , and images are given to San Francisco police the next day . October 4 . A hospital employee tells the sheriff 's department that someone reported a person lying on the 3rd- or 4th-floor landing of Stairwell 8 . `` The Communications Center staff responded , 'We 'll take care of it , ' '' the sheriff said . `` There is no indication that anyone was dispatched to that stairwell . '' That same day , an employee on the fifth floor reported hearing banging coming from Stairwell 8 , a hospital official said , according to Spalding Ford 's family attorney Haig Harris . A hospital spokeswoman later confirmed that the official called Harris , but did not elaborate on the conversation . October 8 . A hospital engineering employee who was conducting a routine check found Spalding Ford 's body in an exterior stairwell . The hospital and sheriff 's department said the alarmed stairwell , which exits to the hospital grounds at the bottom , `` is a fire exit that is not routinely used by staff , patients or the public . '' The aftermath . The sheriff 's department said it 's implemented a series of new policies since Spalding Ford 's death , including daily patrols of fire exit stairwells and working with hospital staff to repair faulty alarms . `` I would like to express my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Lynne Spalding Ford , '' Mirkarimi said . `` We have taken immediate measures to address and make certain such a tragedy never happens again . '' Mirkarimi said his department will review technical problems , such as faulty surveillance equipment and the fact that parts of the hospital were not covered by cameras . He also said policies and procedures of the deputies at the hospital will be reviewed . CNN 's Chuck Johnston contributed to this report .
Lynne Spalding Ford checked into a San Francisco hospital on September 19 . She disappeared two days later , but a full search of the hospital did n't start for another week . Technical ##ities prevented the viewing of surveillance footage , the sheriff 's department says . Her body was found in a remote stairwell two days after her disappearance .