Journal of general internal medicine
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Comparison of a disease-specific and a generic severity of illness measure for patients with community-acquired pneumonia.
To compare the performances of a disease-specific severity of illness index and a prototypical generic severity of illness measure, MedisGroups Admission Severity Groups (ASGs), for patients with community-acquired pneumonia. ⋯ The PSI provided more accurate estimates of hospital mortality and classified different hospital outliers for mortality than did the generic severity of illness measure for patients with community-acquired pneumonia.
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Patients who leave hospitals against medical advice (AMA) frustrate physicians and may put themselves at medical risk. A case-control study was conducted to characterize the factors associated with AMA discharges from an impatient medical service. ⋯ The patients most often stated that they were leaving because they "felt better" or had personal or financial obligations. However, the patients leaving AMA were more likely to return for care within the next week than were the control patients.