Discharges “Against Medical Advice” in Patients With Opioid-related Hospitalizations

Objectives: We performed a descriptive analysis of patient and treatment characteristics in premature discharges “against medical advice” (AMA) in a cohort of patients with opioid-related hospitalizations. Methods: We abstracted data from 1152 opioid related hospitalizations of 928 adult patients in a large academic health system. Using electronic health record data, hospitalizations were categorized as AMA or conventional discharge (CD). To determine differences between AMA and CD regarding treatment characteristics, Fisher exact test, t tests, ANOVA, and logistic regression were performed. Results: 74 / 1152 (6%) of opioid-related hospitalizations were discharged AMA. Hospitalizations that resulted in AMA discharge had shorter median length of stay (AMA vs CD 3.5 vs 5.5 days, P 
Source: Journal of Addiction Medicine - Category: Addiction Tags: Original Research Source Type: research