SAN FRANCISCO -- A 54-year-old patient who disappeared Tuesday after his arrival at San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital was found safe Wednesday at his girlfriend's home, and now the hospital and the ambulance company that delivered him are pointing fingers at each other as the negligent party.

Officers from the San Francisco Police Department's missing persons unit found William Etzler -- who had been considered at-risk after suffering a stroke -- at his girlfriend's home in the 1600 block of Alabama Street at 8 a.m., police reported. He was in good condition and is now at another hospital, according to police.

Etzler went missing from Laguna Honda Hospital on Tuesday after being transferred by ambulance from San Francisco General Hospital to receive rehabilitation treatment, according to hospital spokesman Marc Slavin.

According to Slavin, the ambulance delivered Etzler at the hospital on a gurney shortly before 10 a.m. Tuesday, but there was a miscommunication between the ambulance drivers and nursing staff, and Etzler, unaccounted for, left the hospital about 15 minutes later.

"There was never any transfer of appropriate paperwork with our nursing staff, and (Etzler) made a choice to leave the facility," said Slavin.

"We need to make sure that the ambulance company is aware of our patient transfer procedure, so we'll be talking to them about that," Slavin claimed.

Richard Angotti, spokesman for the San Rafael-based St. Joseph's Ambulance Co., which serves both San Francisco and Marin County, fiercely disputed Slavin's account.

"We do these types of transports nearly every day from San Francisco General to Laguna Honda," Angotti said, adding that his company has an agreed-upon policy to deliver the patient to a room and onto a bed, and then to transfer the patient's paperwork to nursing staff.

"We handed off all the documentation from San Francisco General," Angotti said. "They received everything, we did our job, as we do every day, and I know the responsibility falls upon that nursing staff."

According to Slavin, when the ambulance attendants dropped off Etzler, the receiving nurse was on the phone and told them to bring Etzler to a hospital room.

The nurse later called the ambulance company asking where Etzler was and was reportedly told "We left him with you," Slavin said.

Staff members were unsure whether Etzler walked off on his own or was picked up, and after a search of the hospital campus, filed a missing persons report with police that afternoon.

He suffers partial paralysis but was able to walk, according to Slavin.

Slavin said he was not sure why Etzler did not inform his family where he was, but added that hospital officials notified police that he had listed his girlfriend as a contact on his medical records.