Missed Opportunities: Evolution of Patients Leaving without Being Seen or against Medical Advice during a Six-Year Period in a Swiss Tertiary Hospital Emergency Department
Table 2
Left against medical advice (LAMA) patients.
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Patients admitted in the ED
30 487
32 465
32 335
34 420
36 140
36 704
Male/female ratio
1.1
1.1
1.1
1.1
1.1
1.2
Age: mean (range)
49 (16–104)
48.7 (16–104)
49.0 (16–106)
48.8 (16–107)
49 (16–108)
49.8 (16–109)
LAMA (%)
271 (0.9%)
317 (1.0%)
370 (1.1%)
322 (0.9%)
282 (0.8%)
291 (0.8%)
Male/female ratio
1.4
1.2
1.2
1.1
1.2
1.3
Age: mean (range)
41.2 (16–90)
40.6 (16–88)
41.3 (16–95)
43.1 (17–92)
41.7 (17–91)
43.2 (17–95)
Reasons for leaving (%)
waiting time*
115 (42.4)
133 (41.9)
164 (44.3)
127 (39.4)
121 (42.9)
77 (26.4)
refusal of diagnostic or therapeutic proposition
109 (40.2)
120 (37.9)
109 (29.5)
114 (35.4)
79 (28.0)
122 (41.9)
spontaneous positive evolution
8 (2.9)
12 (3.8)
30 (8.1)
23 (7.1)
18 (6.4)
25 (8.5)
familial concern
13 (4.8)
17 (5.3)
29 (7.8)
27 (8.3)
25 (8.8)
31 (10.6)
unknown
12 (4.4)
20 (6.3)
20 (5.4)
18 (5.6)
11 (3.9)
14 (4.8)
economic or insurance
3 (1.1)
6 (1.9)
6 (1.6)
2 (0.6)
7 (2.5)
12 (4.1)
professional concern
11 (4.1)
8 (2.5)
12 (3.2)
11 (3.4)
21 (7.4)
10 (3.5)
missing data
0 (0.0)
1 (0.3)
0 (0.0)
0 (0.0)
0 (0.0)
0 (0.0)
Time before leaving (min)
Median
211
203
243
254
219
244
IQR
[114.5–313.0]
[114.0–335.0]
[136.5–359.0]
[144.5–424.8]
[116.1–395.0]
[154.0–407.5]
STS: Swiss Triage Scale, LAMA: left against medical advice, IQR: interquartile range.
*Waiting for radiology imaging, biological exams, specialized medical evaluation.
