Discharge against medical advice from emergency department: results from a tertiary care hospital in Tehran, Iran

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 318-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farzaneh Shirani ◽  
Mohammad Jalili ◽  
Hossein Asl-e-Soleimani
2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (232) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manish Nath Pant ◽  
Saswat Kumar Jha ◽  
Sauravi Shrestha

Introduction: Left against medical advice is a worldwide phenomenon. Patients leaving against Left against medical advice do not provide the health professionals with legal impunity. A well-informed consent should be present with surety that they are well understood by the patient before they leave. The study was undertaken to study the prevalence of patients that leave against medical advice. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study done in the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital from 1st February 2020 to 31 July 2020. Ethical approval was taken from the Institutional Review Committee (ref. no. 130120205). The sample size was calculated and the convenient sampling method was used. Data were analyzed in the Statistical Package of the Social Sciences version 22. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. Results: Out of 5834 visits, 332 (5.96%) (4.70-7.22 at 95% Confidence Interval) patients left against medical advice. The mean age was 36.48 years (3 days-91 years) and males 173 (52.3%) were prone to leave than females. Only 50 (15.1%) cases had well-informed consent with complications documented. Hundred (30.5%) patients had wanted to come on follow up the next day in the out-patient department while 41 (12.4%) had to leave because of financial reasons. Only seven (2.9%) of well-oriented patients gave their consent and the remaining 233 (97.1%) were by the kin present. Only 76 (23%) patients were sent home with a well-documented medicine prescription. Conclusions: The proportion of patients who left against medical advice was more than the studies done in a similar setting.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Ashraf El-Metwally ◽  
Nesreen Suliman Alwallan ◽  
Ali Amin Alnajjar ◽  
Nida Zahid ◽  
Khalid Alahmary ◽  
...  

Background. The discharge against medical advice (DAMA) in the Emergency Department (ED) is an issue of great concern because it may result in adverse consequences at a later stage. The reported worldwide prevalence of DAMA ranges from 0.07 to 20% for emergency admissions. The outcomes of DAMA can have significantly damaging effects, causing possible relapses of disease, readmission, and increases in medical costs for the patient. Therefore, it is imperative to identify the predictors of DAMA in ED. Methods. It was a cross-sectional study. The medical records used were those of all the patients (n = 11513) admitted to the Emergency Department (ED) of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAAUH) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between 2017 and 2018. A thorough analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 22. Descriptive statistics were reported for quantitative and categorical variables and assessed by independent t-test/chi-square/ANOVA (analysis of variance), where appropriate. Unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios with their 95% CI (confidence interval) were reported by performing logistic regression. A p value of ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant throughout the study. Results. The prevalence of DAMA in our study was 1%. In a multivariable analysis, after adjusting for the other covariates, we observed a significant interaction between age and gender. It was observed that the odds of DAMA for ≤40-year-old males were 3.12 times higher than those of a ≤40-year-old female (p value < 0.1). To further investigate this interaction, men and women were modeled separately in multivariable models using the same covariates. We found that, for men, the effect of age (≤40 years) was significant (OR = 3.94, 95% CI 1.31–11.80, p=0.014), while, for women, the effect of age (≤40 years) was not as pronounced (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 0.66–2.42, p=0.27). Conclusions. Our study concluded that DAMA was more likely among younger male patients (≤40 years of age). Most of the patients with DAMA were presented to the urgent care of the Emergency Department. We recommend that patients be given some financial support to bear the expenses of the hospital stay from the healthcare facility or from the state. Future studies should assess the socioeconomic status of the patients and estimate the cost that is incurred by the patients.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 474-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Obada Hasan ◽  
Muhammad Adeel Samad ◽  
Hamza Khan ◽  
Maryam Sarfraz ◽  
Shahryar Noordin ◽  
...  

Background: Approximately 1% to 2% of hospitalized patients get discharged or leave from the hospital against medical advice and up to 26% in some centers. They have higher readmission rate and risk of complications than patients who receive complete care. In this study we aimed to determine the rate of leave against medical advice (LAMA) and reasons for the same across different in-patient departments of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: Retrospective cohort study on patients admitted in all departments at our institute over a 1-year period. All patients who were admitted to an in-patient ward at the hospital and who left against medical advice by submitting a duly filled LAMA form were included. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models with forward selection methods were employed. Revisit to hospital within 30 days; to clinic or emergency department was outcome variable for regression. Results: From June 2015 to May 2016 there were 429 LAMA patients, accounting for 0.7% of total admissions. Females were 223 (52%) compared to males 206 (48%). Finances were quoted as the most common reason for LAMA by 174 (41%) patients followed by domestic problems 78 (18%). Internal medicine was the service with the highest number of LAMA patients ie, 153 (36%) followed by Pediatric medicine with 73 (17%). Of the 429 patients, 147 (34%) patients revisited the hospital within 30 days. Sixty-one percent of these ‘bounced-back’ LAMA patients had worsening or persistence of same problem, or new problem/s had developed. In unadjusted bivariate logistic model, patients who were advised for follow-up during discharge against medical advice were four times more likely to revisit the hospital. Patients who were married had an increased odd of revisiting the hospital. Conclusion: Financial reasons are the most common stated reasons to LAMA. Patients who LAMA are at a high risk of clinical worsening and ‘bouncing back.’ This is the first study from our region on in-patient LAMA rates, to our knowledge. The results can be used for planning measures to reduce LAMA rates and its consequences.


Author(s):  
Sanjeev Kumar Singla ◽  
Ankush Singla ◽  
Mridul Panditrao ◽  
Ishan Bansal ◽  
Rakendra Singh

Background: The elderly population ≥60 years is increasing as the life span is increasing. So is the number of elderly patients who are refusing to get discharge from the hospital is also increasing. Authors are conducting this study in the elderly population who want to stay against medical advice.The aim to find the prevalence of elderly patients who refuse to get discharge from Coronary Care Unit (CCU) in a Tertiary care hospital of North IndiaMethods: A retrospective, observational study conducted in patients of age ≥60 years admitted to the coronary intensive care unit of a tertiary health care centre who refused discharge from the unit, were included in the study. Results: Of the 575 patients 44(7.65%) were willing to stay against medical advice. Of these 24(54.5%) were males and 20(45.5%) females. 6(13.6%) patients were terminally ill suffering from malignancies. Among all the patients who were willing to stay against medical advice, 8(18.2%) were covered by some health insurance scheme of either State or Central Government. 3(6.8%) patients were discharged after 24 hours, 22(50%) patients after 48 hours, 14(31.9%) patients after 72 hours and 5(11.3%) patients after 96 hours of advising discharge from hospital.Conclusions: As the intensive care beds at tertiary healthcare level are limited, the treatment of other salvageable sick patients who need the intensive care is affected by the unnecessary stay in hospital. Apart from the worsened nurse to patient ratio this increases the cost of treatment. This is need of hour to provide safe environment for the elderly outside the hospital settings and increase resources to provide better homecare.


2021 ◽  
pp. 53-55
Author(s):  
Harsimran Singh Das

Introduction:qCSI (Quick COVID severity index) is a clinical tool established recently post pandemic to predict respiratory failure within 24 hours of admission in COVID-19 patients; respiratory failure being explain as increased oxygen requirement greater than 6L/min by low ow device, high ow device, noninvasive or invasive ventilation to maintain spO2 of greater than or equal to 94%, or death. Aim:To verify and validate the application of the qCSI in Emergency Department in Indian demographic for evidence-based guidance to aid physician decision making in safely dispositioning adult patients with COVID-19 with oxygen requirement less than or equal to 6L/min via low ow devices including nasal cannula and oxygen mask Materials and methods:This is an observational, retrospective study from Emergency Department in a private tertiary care hospital of admitted adult patients with COVID-19 disease. Clinical parameters in qCSI and disposition of 210 patients admitted through Emergency Department included in this study selected randomly was sought on admission and clinical status with level of care 24 hours following admission was recorded and compared with prediction based on qCSI from a period of 1 May 2020 to 31 October 2020. Result:We found that19(9.0%) patients Initial qCSI Score was Low, 80(38.1%) patients Initial qCSI Score was Low-intermediate, 84(40.0%) patients Initial qCSI Score was High-intermediate and 27(12.9%)patients Initial qCSI Score was High.qCSI Score after 24 hours 16(11.4%) patients were Low, 43(30.7%) patients were Low-intermediate, 63(45.0%) patients was High-intermediate and 18(12.9%) patients was High.Out of 210(100.0%) patients, 70 (33.3%) patients were critically ill. Conclusion:In conclusion these data show that the quick COVID-19 Severity Index provides easily accessed risk stratication relevant to Emergency Department provider.


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