When a Hawaii health care medical facility accepts a patient’s tangible personal property for safekeeping, that facility should have a policy in place to deal with the various issues that arise when assuming such responsibility. The primary purpose of such a policy would be to outline the specific standards and procedures that the facility and its service departments need to follow when the patient relinquishes his or her tangible personal property to the facility. In particular such a policy would apply to the facility’s inpatient and service departments.
Such a policy should at least address the following issues:
- What department of the facility is specifically responsible for safeguarding the patient’s property.
- What are the facility’s specific security procedures to handle the patient’s property.
- Who can claim the patient’s property.
- In the event the patient has expired, how can the patient’s property be claimed.
- If the patient’s property remains unclaimed, how long will the facility hold this property before presuming it to be abandoned.
- How will the facility dispose of the property after holding it for a given period of time.
When creating such a policy, the Hawaii health care medical facility should also include procedures and standards that are compliant with the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act established by the Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 523A. This would enable the facility and its service departments to deliver abandoned and/or unclaimed property to the State of Hawaii, and the State would then assume custody and responsibility for the safekeeping of that property.
As you can see there are a number of issues that you will need to consider when creating a policy and procedure for the safekeeping of patient’s tangible personal property.
Contact us so we can prepare it for you correctly. Save yourself stress, worry and any later issues.