Patient Lost Property

This internal website is strictly for UCSF employees, please do not share this information with non-UCSF individuals. Please refer them to our public website at: healthriskmanagement.ucsf.edu

Patients are discouraged from bringing valuable items to the hospital and UCSF Health is not responsible for personal belongings and valuables kept by a patient at the bedside and may not be reimbursed for lost items.

Patient Lost & Damaged Property Procedures for Units:

If a patient contacts your unit stating that they lost property or it was damaged while at UCSF, it is your responsibility to look for the missing item and, if you can’t find it, decide whether the unit wants to reimburse the patient item out of your cost center. Per terms and conditions UCSF is not responsible for lost belongings, but as a courtesy, a unit may reimburse for missing essential health items. Please refer to # 5 'Personal Valuables' on the 'Terms and Conditions of Service: Admissions and Medical Services' document for more information.
It is up to the unit to decide whether to reimburse the patient and to let the patient know the outcome. If it is decided to reimburse, the monetary amount will need to be worked out between you and the patient. Ask the patient for the receipt of the original item or to find a similar item online with images showing its cost. If reimbursement is agreed upon, please note in your unit's accounting records that this reimbursement is for "Patient Lost Property" and send a copy of the original receipt and/or website information of the item to UCSF Health AP (see #3 below for their email address).
After the reimbursement amount is decided upon, click on this link to download and fill out the UCSF Health AP check request form: https://ucsf.box.com/s/wpipigyz4ffnw6osclsn7bycujc9wj1a All required fields are in yellow and listed below.
- Today's Date
- Payee Name, this will be the patient's information. Please check with them that what is showing in APeX is the most current mailing address for them.
- Gross Amount of Check, total monetary value of all patient lost items.
- Amount, each line item for reimbursement monetary amount
- Expense Code, for patient lost property it is usually 66903. AP will let you know if this is incorrect.
- DBS Center, your unit's cost center number.
- Reference, enter in "Pt Lost Property" and then the item after it, ex; "Pt. Lost Property - dentures"
- Prepared By/Box No/Phone No, information of whoever is updating this form and sending it to AP.
- Approved by (Authorized Signature)/Typed or Printed Approver Name and Job Title, your unit's authorized financial approver. It is suggested that you send the form to them by Docusign. To find who your unit's authorized approvers are here is the link for the 'Signature Authority Table' categorized by cost center code: https://ucsf.box.com/s/jz59xwtwl56xevzee633820rnma18mai If the names are outdated, please reach out to AP for assistance on updating the table.
- After you have received the signed check request form back from the unit authorized approver, send it as a PDF to UCSF Health AP at [email protected]
- On average it takes up to three weeks total for AP to process, send, and for the patient to receive the check.
Units need to fill out an IR for every Patient Lost Property event. This will automatically notify Risk Management of the incident in case the patient files a claim. Please be as thorough as possible about the description of the lost item in the IR (ex; "cell phone" vs "black iPhone 14 with purple tree screen saver and a smiley face sticker on it").
If a patient is directed to contact Risk Management or Patient Relations for assistance with their lost or broken property, they will be redirected to the unit for follow-up with the steps above. This includes immediately directing the patient to our public website page on Patient Lost Property (https://healthriskmanagement.ucsf.edu/ucsf-health-patient-lost-property); after contacting us they will be directed back to the unit for follow-up.
For UCSF Health Lost & Found (items lost within the units), please contact UCSF Health Security, E: [email protected] Please note that UCSF Health Security will not accept or have clothing items and shoes in their lost and found.
For UCSF Campus Lost & Found (items not lost within a unit but all other areas; cafeteria, lobby areas, public restrooms, parking garage, etc.) please contact UCPD, E: [email protected] Please note that UCPD will not accept or have clothing items and shoes in their lost and found.

This internal website is strictly for UCSF employees, please do not share this information with non-UCSF individuals. Please refer them to our public website at: healthriskmanagement.ucsf.edu

Patients are discouraged from bringing valuable items to the hospital and UCSF Health is not responsible for personal belongings and valuables kept by a patient at the bedside and may not be reimbursed for lost items.

Patient Lost & Damaged Property Procedures for Units:

After the reimbursement amount is decided upon, click on this link to download and fill out the UCSF Health AP check request form: https://ucsf.box.com/s/wpipigyz4ffnw6osclsn7bycujc9wj1a All required fields are in yellow and listed below.

Today's Date

Payee Name, this will be the patient's information. Please check with them that what is showing in APeX is the most current mailing address for them.

Gross Amount of Check, total monetary value of all patient lost items.

Amount, each line item for reimbursement monetary amount

Expense Code, for patient lost property it is usually 66903. AP will let you know if this is incorrect.

DBS Center, your unit's cost center number.

Reference, enter in "Pt Lost Property" and then the item after it, ex; "Pt. Lost Property - dentures"

Prepared By/Box No/Phone No, information of whoever is updating this form and sending it to AP.

After you have received the signed check request form back from the unit authorized approver, send it as a PDF to UCSF Health AP at [email protected]

On average it takes up to three weeks total for AP to process, send, and for the patient to receive the check.

For UCSF Health Lost & Found (items lost within the units), please contact UCSF Health Security, E: [email protected] Please note that UCSF Health Security will not accept or have clothing items and shoes in their lost and found.

For UCSF Campus Lost & Found (items not lost within a unit but all other areas; cafeteria, lobby areas, public restrooms, parking garage, etc.) please contact UCPD, E: [email protected] Please note that UCPD will not accept or have clothing items and shoes in their lost and found.