I have a serious question. I’ve thought about this a few times lately.
Let’s say I get in a serious accident, and wake up in the hospital. I wake up, I feel OK, and I sit up.
There appears to be nothing wrong with me, based on a visual inspection and moving around some.
Can I pull out whatever IV’s, get up, and leave? Can a hospital legally make you stay?
I think the “fact” that you have to wear medical gowns, and that you “have” to stay in a hospital (or in your room) is bullshit, and probably illegal. I don’t see why or how doctors can have such dominion over people, even with their education.
Especially because as many of you know, an advanced degree does not mean you are necessarily a smart person.
You can discharge yourself from hospital at any time. The hospital will get you to sign a waiver stating that you are leaving of your own free will and that you are aware that you are doing this against medical advice. In other words, if you die as a result the hospital cannot be held accountable.
In extreme circumstances I suppose you could be sectioned if it was thought you might be a danger to others.
I’m not sure what would happed if you left but refused to sign the waiver, perhaps the hospital has another form that could be signed by witnesses to say that you left and refused to sign but this is just a WAG.
It’s called “being discharged/checked out against medical advice”. Happens all the time.
No one can make you stay. You wear the gown as it makes exams/treatment easier and you stay in your room so you don’t interfere with other patients or wander into areas you’re not supposed to go.
I would say that if you can get up and wander around the floor, you probably don’t need to be in the hospital.
You’re probably younger, so this exact situation probably doesn’t apply to you, but some financial equivalent of it might.
Recently my mother-in-law spent some time in a hospital and from there in one of those not-quite-a-hospital, not-quite-a-nursing-home facilities. She hated it there and wanted to go home, but the doctors wouldn’t release her (because in their opinion, she wasn’t well enough to go home). A friend of ours (who happens to be a doctor in a completely different facility) told us to tell her NOT to walk out without her doctors’ release, because if she did then medicare (medicaid?) wouldn’t pay for her stay and she’d end up having to pay for it.
She did not tempt fate, and she eventually was released to go home.
Yes-people can and do leave all the time. Nobody can stop you without risking a charge of assault and/or battery. We can only hold you if you are an immediate threat to yourself or others (I’ve ordered Security to physically stop exactly one patient, who was on his second suicide attempt in three weeks and who I felt was not competent due to a brain tumor and meds. However, when the psychiatrist came to examine him, the patient told him that he was not suicidal and they refused to hold him anyway).
This bit isn’t true. For example, I was kept in the hospital for three days following surgery while they got the infection under control and made sure all my systems restarted correctly. During this time the doctor ordered my to get up and walk around the floor.
Patients are encouraged to get up and walk after surgery or illness as soon as the Doctor says is ok. I went downstairs to the hospital cafeteria with my family a couple times before my discharge.
It is true that if you are a *competent *adult, they can’t force you to stay. They also can’t force any medical or other procedure on you. You have the ultimate right to decline any or all treatment. A nurse or doctor who threatens you (“Mr. Smith, if you don’t take your medicine, I’ll have to get the wrist restraints!”) is committing assault, and one who touches you without your consent (like grabbing your arm to give an injection) is committing battery.
If you’re not mentally competent due to drugs (recreational or prescribed) or mental illness, including age related dementia, if you are threatening or injuring staff, or if you are a minor, then this does not apply. They can restrain you, perform procedures without your consent and even force you to stay in the hospital for a specified period of time *without *court order and the hospital can petition a judge to assign you a medical guardian who will authorize treatments on your behalf for, essentially, forever.
As far as I know, it’s true that Medicare/caid will refuse payment if a patient signs out AMA, but I haven’t worked in medical billing, so I won’t swear to it. If it’s a lie, it’s a lie they tell the staff and students, too.
You couldn’t be more incorrect in that statement. I was given 10 hours or fewer to live when I was admitted to the ICU a little over a year ago. I had to stay in ICU for a week but I could always walk just fine even by myself after I came out of a coma the second day. I got moved to critical care after that for a week and they let me walk around the floor if I requested they take my IV’s out. Being able to walk isn’t a very high standard. Lots of incredibly sick people can walk around and yet collapse and die at any second.
To the OP, I got really bored on about day 14 and just decided to take a walk around the hospital. They noticed it right away and sent a team of security to find me. I wasn’t in any real trouble but I got a stern lecture.
I knew a guy that did this. He had collapsed due to chest pains and was taken to a local hospital by ambulance. When he got there he recovered enough that he was conscious and told the ER staff he felt better and wanted to leave. They tried to convince him this was a really bad idea as he might have just had a heart attack or something. But he’s a stubborn idiot and he insisted. So they had him sign a waiver that he was leaving against medical advice and let him go.
Everyone knows it’s NURSES who actually hold absolute authority in a hospital.
Seriously, you can run an average hospital and keep most services going and take care of the patients just fine with no doctors physically on the scene for quite a while. You can’t do that for ten minutes without nurses.
As an addendum, at every hospital I worked at, we were absolutely forbidden to tell patients their insurance wouldn’t pay if they left against medical advice (AMA), because it flat-out wasn’t true. Anyone who did tell a patient that could be fired.
