Causes of Discharge against Medical Advice in patients of a Number of Selected Hospitals

Discharge Against Medical Advice (DAMA) is one of the important concerns of health systems. This could be potentially life-threatening and cause readmission. The purpose of this study was to determine causes of DAMA in patients of some selected hospitals.
This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytic study was performed in winter 2016. The medical files of 261 patients discharged against medical advice were selected by simple random sampling and reviewed. Data were gathered through Hospital Information System and using a self-designed check list. Data were analyzed through SPSS software and using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test.
From all, 58.6% were male, 66.3% were married and 22.2% did not have any insurance coverage. The most common reason of DAMA was feeling better (43.3%). Discharge against medical advice showed significant relationship with marital status (P= 0.02), and insurance type (P= 0.05).
Since the most common reason of DAMA was feeling better, more attention of authorities and also a stronger patient-physician relationship are recommended in order to aware patients of their clinical conditions and treatment process.