Frequency and Causes of Discharge against Medical. Advice in children

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Discharging with personal satisfaction is one of the main problems in hospitalization, when the patient leaves the hospital sooner than the doctor's advice. This will exacerbate the disease and increase the risk of hospital re-admittance. In this regard, more attention should be given to children because they are not able to understand the above meaning or participate in decision making. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, all children who were discharged due to personal satisfaction from the hospital were included. The 4-page checklist for the various causes of "leaving the hospital despite medical advice" was divided into three sections Causes related to the patient's own issues, causes related to the hospital medical staff and the causes of the hospital situation, and a page of demographical variables included gender, age and history of hospitalization and ward of hospitalization. Results: A total of 310 cases (7.4%) were discharged with personal satisfaction of their parents. The most important factor linked to discharge with personal satisfaction was the poor economic condition of parents. In terms of factors related to the medical staff, the lack of proper handling of the nurse and then the doctor were the most important factors for discharge. Conclusion: It seems that economic issues are the most important factor in the discharge of children with parental consent of parents. On the other hand, factors such as unacceptable and unpopular behavior of nurses and doctors play crucial role in this phenomenon. Parents who are under intense psychological stress due to economic problems and child illness can be at risk of developing this phenomenon if they are not mentally supported by health staffs