Elopement-Not just for brides |
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When most folks hear the term "elope", they think about couples avoiding complicated nuptials. In healthcare, elopement occurs when a patient purposefully leaves the hospital without completion of treatment and without notification of the healthcare team. Media reports of a patient vanishing from a San Francisco hospital illustrate both the safety and public relations concerns of elopement. Elopement is often confused with leaving against medical advice, or AMA. An AMA patient has the capacity to consent to treatment and makes the decision to leave. For AMA status, the patient must inform the healthcare staff of his intentions (not sneak out the back). The final category of patients that may leave a clinical area are "wanderers". These patients wander either inside or outside the medical center without an appreciation of their personal safety; an example would be a patient with dementia that wanders outside.
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