BACKGROUND Discharge Against Medical Advice (DAMA) from hospital is associated with adverse outcomes and is considered an indicator of the responsiveness of hospitals to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, the indigenous people of Australia. We investigated demographic and clinical factors that predict DAMA in patients experiencing their first-ever inpatient admissio...

Objective: The Principle of Respect for Autonomy is integral to the patient-physician relationship, yet within a society that prizes the value of life and remains defined by Confucian-inspired concepts of Beneficence, limits to respect for patient choice are increasingly apparent. This is particularly evident in the end-of-life setting and specifically in situations where terminally ill palliat...

BACKGROUND Hospital discharge against medical advice, especially among substance-abusing populations, is a frustrating problem for health care providers. Because of the high prevalence of injection drug use among HIV-positive patients admitted to hospital in Vancouver, we explored the factors associated with leaving hospital against medical advice in this population. METHODS We reviewed recor...

It is estimated that as many as 2% of all US hospital discharges (approximately 500 000 per year) are designated as against medical advice1; that is, a patient chooses to leave the hospital before the treating physician recommends discharge. The risks to these patients are significant. Compared with patients discharged conventionally, readmission rates for patients discharged against medical ad...

Background: Knowledge of the profile pediatric discharge against medical advice (DAMA) may help design interventions to reduce its prevalence. Objectives: This study aimed assess DAMA at Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH), Ado-Ekiti, State, Nigeria. Methods: retrospective cross-sectional descriptive included all cases from January 2012 December 2018. Relevant information was extr...

Approximately 1%-2% of hospitalizations in the United States result an against medical advice discharge. Still, practice discharging patients is highly subjective and variable. Discharges are associated with physician distress, patient stigma, adverse outcomes, including increased morbidity mortality. This review summarizes discharge research, proposes a definition for discharge, recommends sta...