Open AccessPatients who Self‐Discharge from the Emergency Department: a Three‐Month Telephone Survey
Author(s) -
Lim YH,
Anantharaman V
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
hong kong journal of emergency medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.145
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 2309-5407
pISSN - 1024-9079
DOI - 10.1177/102490790401100105
Subject(s) - medicine , emergency department , telephone survey , telephone interview , patient discharge , emergency medicine , medical record , telephone call , medical emergency , medline , psychiatry , surgery , social science , marketing , sociology , political science , law , business , electrical engineering , engineering
Study objectives To determine the main causes and outcomes of patients who self‐discharged from the Emergency Department (ED). Methods Records of all patients who self‐discharged from the ED of a tertiary level hospital were traced and telephone interviews were conducted. The duration of the study was from 15 July 2002 to 14 October 2002. Results There were 28,898 new attendances during the period of study and of these, 450 (1.6%) patients signed the self‐discharge form. Of the 357 patients recruited into the study, the majority signed the self‐discharge form because of refusal of admission to inpatient units (52.1%) or the ED observation ward (43.4%) for further treatment. One hundred and thirteen (31.7%) patients acknowledged that they were unwell during the interview and 85 (23.8%) patients sought some form of medical attention after leaving the ED. Conclusion Most of the patients who self‐discharged from the ED were for personal reasons and very few were due to financial reasons.