Discharges against medical advice are on the rise
The proportion of Medicare age patients who choose to be discharged from the hospital through an AMA—against medical advice—form is rising.
The New York Times reported on one such case involving 82-year-old William Callahan, who has Alzheimer’s and a history of cardiac problems. After he came into the hospital after fainting, the emergency physician wanted to keep Callahan overnight to see a cardiologist the next morning, even though Callahan’s daughter, Eileen, a geriatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, insisted he was prone to sleeplessness and delirium in unfamiliar surroundings.
The cardiologist hadn’t arrived by the next afternoon. With Callahan having pulled out his heart monitors and becoming agitated and confused, his family signed the AMA form, acknowledging that patients understand and assume the risks, medically and legally, for leaving the hospital against physician’s recommendations.
“He should have been discharged right from the ER,” Eileen Callahan said. “This was cookbook medicine, done without thinking. It was very adversarial.”
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John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.