When Daniel Cooper and his wife left Mercy Hospital Folsom with their newborn child against medical advice earlier this month, they joined a small but growing number of local patients refusing hospital care.
About 77 out of every 10,000 patients discharged from inpatient care at Sacramento hospitals in 2010 left against their doctor's advice, up 45 percent from the rate in 2002, according to figures submitted by hospitals to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Research.
The trend picked up as hospital bills increasingly ballooned to far beyond what patients can afford to pay.
This chart shows the number of Sacramento County inpatient hospital discharges that occurred against medical advice from 2002 to 2010.
Source: OSHPD
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