DAMA Full Form in Medical term is Discharge Against Medical Device. Leaving the hospital prior the treating doctor recommends it is what we call “patient refusal.” Prevalence estimates for DAMA in the ED range from 0.07% to 20% worldwide.
One of the primary causes of readmission rates, DAMA is also associated with bad clinical outcomes & poor healthcare resource usage, such as illness relapse and excessive healthcare expenses.
Patients with DAMA are a high-risk group because they have a higher risk of dying within 30 days, of being readmitted to the hospital, of staying in the hospital longer after being readmitted, and of returning to the emergency room (by a factor of roughly 24).
Patients treated with DAMA had a 40 percent greater readmission rate than those whose hospital stays are completed. While the cost of treating DAMA patients varies worldwide, one study estimated that readmitting DAMA patients in Australia cost $8.6 million annually.
In addition, recent research has shown that the total cost of hospitalization for DAMA patients is 50% greater than if they had been adequately handled and discharged by doctors on their initial visit.
If a patient leaves the emergency department (ED) while still awaiting hospital admission, they are considered DAMA.