Characteristics of patients with pneumonia who are discharged from hospitals against medical advice

Most prior studies of patients discharged from the hospital against medical advice have been small and included patients with a variety of primary diagnoses, and they have generally not adjusted adequately for comorbidity ( 1 Jeremiah J. O’Sullivan P. Stein M.D. Who leaves against medical advice?. J Gen Intern Med. 1995; 10: 403-405 Crossref PubMed Scopus (92) Google Scholar , 2 Moy E. Bartman B.A. Race and hospital discharge against medical advice. J Nat Med Assoc. 1996; 88: 658-660 PubMed Google Scholar ). Demographic, clinical, and patient factors, however, may contribute to determining the likelihood that a hospitalization will end against medical advice, and the identification of these factors would help target interventions towards appropriate patients. Therefore, we studied a retrospective cohort of patients hospitalized for pneumonia to determine characteristics associated with discharge against medical advice.