Epidemiology and Statistics
yalda ravanshad; Mohadese Golsorkhi; elham Bakhtiari; aghil lollah keykhosravi; anoush azarfar; malihe shoja; mohamad behazin; sahar ravanshad; alireza ghodsi
Volume 28, Issue 2 , May and June 2021, , Pages 183-188
Abstract
Introduction: The patient’s self-discharge from the hospital is a process in which the patient leaves the hospital voluntarily without completing the course of treatment, despite medical advice, and can indicate patient dissatisfaction and a significant challenge for health system managers. This ...
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Introduction: The patient’s self-discharge from the hospital is a process in which the patient leaves the hospital voluntarily without completing the course of treatment, despite medical advice, and can indicate patient dissatisfaction and a significant challenge for health system managers. This study was conducted to investigate the causes and consequences of a patient's self-discharge from Dr. Sheikh Hospital as a referral center in the northeast of Iran.
Material and Method: All patients who were discharged with the personal consent from the hospital with personal consent between October 2014 and March 2015 were included in the study. A checklist was used to collect data. The patients' outcome was completed by telephone a week later. Finally, SPSS statistical software was used to evaluate the results.
Results: Totally, 51 patients were included in this study. The leading causes of discharge with personal consent were including dissatisfaction with the physician and medical staff in 23 patients (45.1%), home care preference in 12 patients (23.5%), distance from the hospital in 5 patients (9.8%), teaching at the hospital in 3 patients (،5.9), the high cost of treatment in 3 patients (9 5.9), the overcrowding of the hospital in 3 patients (9 5.9) and the lack of specialist or diagnostic and therapeutic devices in 2 patients (3.9%). Also, in the study of patients' outcome, 21 patients (41.1%) referred to the doctor again, 18 patients (35.3%) continued treatment at home, 9 patients (17.7%) were readmitted and 2 patients (3.9%) died.
Conclusion: The most common cause of discharge with personal consent was dissatisfaction from the treatment team. Given that 3.9% of patients have died and a large number of patients have been re-referred to the doctor and be readmitted, it seems that justifying patients to refrain from self-discharge is in the patient's best interest.