Against-Medical-Advice Discharges from the Hospital: Optimizing Prevention and Management to Promote High Quality, Patient-Centered Care

This first-of-its-kind text provides a multidisciplinary overview of a significant problem in hospital-based healthcare: patients who decline inpatient medical care and leave the hospital against medical advice (AMA). Compared to standard hospital discharges, AMA discharges are associated with worse health and health services outcomes. Patients discharged AMA have been found to have disproportionately higher rates of substance use, psychiatric illness, and report stigmatization and reduced ...