AMA Journal of Ethics^®

Safe discharge planning and execution require linkage to follow-up, patient engagement, and multidisciplinary teamwork.

This article summarizes AMA Code of Medical Ethics' guidance about patient transfer practices and discharge planning.

Turfing is a colloquialism that refers to what clinicians do to patients whose needs do not fit neatly and tidily into typical clinical placement protocols.

This commentary on a case considers whether and to what extent refusal to care for patients insured by Medicare is a form of turfing.

Constraints on hospitalists and surgeons and restricted orthopedic admission criteria can exacerbate patients’ distress that comes from clinicians’ disagreements.

Decisions about where and to whose professional stewardship patients are admitted are influenced by federal policies of which physicians might not be aware.

Stopping turfing starts with clinicians and administrators having candid discussions about where and in whose care patients belong.

This manuscript canvasses clinical, legal, and ethical dimensions of turfing and dumping that deserve investigation.

This visual abstract is based on an article from the July 2023 issue of the journal.

Technology-dependent inpatients are commonly turfed, either between general services or from subspecialty to general services.