Unscheduled Return Visits and Leaving the Chest Pain Unit Against Medical Advice

BACKGROUND: Rate of Unscheduled Return Visits (URVs) to the Emergency Department has been considered as a key indicator for evaluating the quality of the Emergency Department care for decades. A higher rate of URVs can have a negative impact on the quality of health care. Investigations of the reasons for these returns have indicated that many of these visits can be preventable. OBJECTIVES: Given that there are no clear findings about the frequency and reasons for 72 hours URVs to the Chest Pain Unit (CPU), in the present study, we investigated the causes of 72 hours URVs to our CPU in order to find out the inadequacies, and propose preventive strategies. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This research was a single-center retrospective case control study in the setting of CPU of Tehran Heart Center (a 460-bed, tertiary-care teaching hospital), Tehran, Iran. The medical records of the patients who were presented to our CPU with the chief complaint of chest pain between December 28(th), 2010 and February 28(th), 2011 were reviewed. Of the 6247 eligible patients, forty-nine URVs that fulfilled our criteria were identified. The control group consisted of 196 patients who did not return to the Emergency Department during our study period. RESULTS: Patient-related factors accounted for most 72 hours URVs (49%). Multivariable analysis revealed that in our CPU, leaving Against medical advice was the most important predictor for 72 hours URVs (P value < 0.001). Additionally, male sex, history of hypertension, first-visit disposition to observation unit and age were the other factors associated with URVs. CONCLUSIONS: Considering that the most frequent reason for our URVs was patient-related factors, where all cases had left the CPU Against Medical Advice (AMA) during their first attendance, we recommend that further appropriate strategies be devised to prevent leaving against medical advice.