Left without being seen

Left Without Being Seen (LWBS) is a healthcare term often used by emergency departments (ED) to designate a patient encounter that ended with the patient leaving the healthcare setting before the patient could be seen by a certified physician. Often the inclusion of this phrase in a medical record is the result of ED overcrowding (i.e. the patient could no longer wait in the ED to be seen by a physician, so they left without alerting a healthcare professional). Typically, those patients who leave an emergency department without being seen are not at an increased risk of death, and often do not require inpatient hospital admission.[1][2] An increase in LWBS patients may be reflective of systemic public healthcare logistical issues. [3]

References
  1. Sainsbury SJ. (October 1990). "Emergency patients who leave without being seen: are urgently ill or injured patients leaving without care". Mil Med. 155 (10): 460–64. PMID 2122285.
  2. Rowe BH, Channan P, Bullard M, Blitz S, Saunders LD, Rosychuk RJ, Lari H, Craig WR, Holroyd BR (Aug 2006). "Characteristics of patients who leave emergency departments without being seen". Acad Emerg Med. 13 (8): 848–52. doi:10.1197/j.aem.2006.01.028. PMID 16670258.
  3. Li, David R.; Brennan, Jesse J.; Kreshak, Allyson A.; Castillo, Edward M.; Vilke, Gary M. (July 2019). "Patients Who Leave the Emergency Department Without Being Seen and Their Follow-Up Behavior: A Retrospective Descriptive Analysis". The Journal of Emergency Medicine. 57 (1): 106–113. doi:10.1016/j.jemermed.2019.03.051. ISSN 0736-4679. PMID 31078346.


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