ArticleInternational journal of health policy and management2020
Global Problem of Hospital Detention Practices.
Article in International journal of health policy and management, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Experiences of Healthcare Providers and Households Facing Healthcare Costs in Eastern Kasai/DR Congo: A Qualitative Analysis.ClinicoEconomics and outcomes research : CEOR · 2026Article
- Trapped by debt: an ethnographic study of medical indebtedness and hospital detention in the Fundong Health District, Cameroon.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Hospitalized for poverty: orthopaedic discharge delays due to financial hardship in a tertiary hospital in Northern Tanzania.Global health research and policy · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although an official definition by the World Health Organization (WHO) or any other authority is currently lacking, hospital detention practices (HDP) can be described as: "refusing release of either living patients after medical discharge is clinically indicated or refusing release of bodies of deceased patients if families are unable to pay their hospital bills." Reports of HDP are very scarce and lack consistent terminology. Consequently, the problem's scale is unknown. This study aimed to find evidence of HDP worldwide, explore characteristics of HDP reports, and compare countries with or without reports. PubMed and Google were examined for relevant English, Spanish, and French publications up to January 2019. Of 195 countries, HDP reports were found in 46 countries (24%) in Africa, Asia, South-America, Europe, and North-America. Most reports were published by journalists in newspapers. In most countries reports concern living adults and children who are imprisoned in public hospitals. A majority (52%) of reports were of individuals detained for at least a month. Almost all countries, with or without HDP reports, have signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Countries with reported HDP have larger population size (
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.