Emergency Medicine: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

The Sufficiency of Emergency Medicine Physician Documentation of Against Medical Advice Encounters

Edward P Monico

A great deal of ambiguity exists among emergency medicine (EM) physicians regarding how to document against medical advice (AMA) encounters in the emergency department (ED) setting. In our own institution, this ambiguity surfaces as inconsistent and eclectic documentation of patients terminating their evaluation and/ or treatment prematurely. This ambiguity suggests (EM) residency programs fail to educate EM physicians-in-training in the area of AMA encounters and the importance of this emergency patient population in the context of the extant EM climate. The Open Access Initiative provides an ideal venue to distribute information and supports efforts to establish uniformity in the provision of certain aspects of EM care, such as documentation of AMA encounters.