Dogs in the ED

[WhatJobDoIPick]

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Why is this a thing? Why do we allow this? Am I taking crazy pills?

 

[MechEDoc]

Why is this a thing? Why do we allow this? Am I taking crazy pills?

I was a Banner facility once where hospital security had a german shepard and they used it to chase an elderly dementia patient back into their room..!

Lots of stuff there didn't pass the newspaper headline test.

 

[Tiger26]

I'd prefer more dogs and fewer people

 

[thegenius]

I have no clue. We are a weak society that caves in and caters to the forlorn and emotionally unstable folk.

 

[Arcan57]

EMTALA says you have to stabilize emergent medical conditions. Patient comes with their dog, most hospitals don't have kennels to keep the dogs in. There aren't good options for dealing with the problem. You'd be (un)surprised at the number of dogs with service animal vests that poop all over the floor of the hospital.

 

[BoardingDoc]

EMTALA says you have to stabilize emergent medical conditions. Patient comes with their dog, most hospitals don't have kennels to keep the dogs in. There aren't good options for dealing with the problem. You'd be (un)surprised at the number of dogs with service animal vests that poop all over the floor of the hospital.

You don't need to let those dogs stay. We had an issue during my pain fellowship with certain patients bringing in their "service dog." The ADA specifically states that the dog must be under control of the patient at all times and the dog must be housebroken. In any instance where that is not the case, the facility may ask that the animal be removed. Once our staff became well versed in these regs, the number of "service animals" in our clinic dropped by over 50% as we started refusing to see people.

If a dog craps on the floor, you can have the patient send the dog home with someone else. The dog can't stay.

If the patient plays the "I'm sick and I have to stay and there's no one to take the dog home" card, you tell them you're happy to call animal control to come remove the animal.

I say this as a dog owner and dog lover. Dogs are great. People who claim that their untrained dogs are service animals should be shown the door.

 

[AlmostAnMD]

EMTALA says you have to stabilize emergent medical conditions. Patient comes with their dog, most hospitals don't have kennels to keep the dogs in. There aren't good options for dealing with the problem. You'd be (un)surprised at the number of dogs with service animal vests that poop all over the floor of the hospital.

I once ran a code and right after EMS arrived with him his wife brought his dog in and placed it between his legs as we were doing CPR

wtf

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

You don't need to let those dogs stay. We had an issue during my pain fellowship with certain patients bringing in their "service dog." The ADA specifically states that the dog must be under control of the patient at all times and the dog must be housebroken. In any instance where that is not the case, the facility may ask that the animal be removed. Once our staff became well versed in these regs, the number of "service animals" in our clinic dropped by over 50% as we started refusing to see people.

If a dog craps on the floor, you can have the patient send the dog home with someone else. The dog can't stay.

If the patient plays the "I'm sick and I have to stay and there's no one to take the dog home" card, you tell them you're happy to call animal control to come remove the animal.

I say this as a dog owner and dog lover. Dogs are great. People who claim that their untrained dogs are service animals should be shown the door.

I had a patient whose "service" dog would bark at me whenever I got close enough to put stethoscope to skin.

 

[Arcan57]

You don't need to let those dogs stay. We had an issue during my pain fellowship with certain patients bringing in their "service dog." The ADA specifically states that the dog must be under control of the patient at all times and the dog must be housebroken. In any instance where that is not the case, the facility may ask that the animal be removed. Once our staff became well versed in these regs, the number of "service animals" in our clinic dropped by over 50% as we started refusing to see people.

If a dog craps on the floor, you can have the patient send the dog home with someone else. The dog can't stay.

If the patient plays the "I'm sick and I have to stay and there's no one to take the dog home" card, you tell them you're happy to call animal control to come remove the animal.

I say this as a dog owner and dog lover. Dogs are great. People who claim that their untrained dogs are service animals should be shown the door.

Do you call animal control? How long does it take them to respond? Sure, if they're in clinic GTFO but I don't think there's an EMTALA carveout for refusing to stabilize a patient because of a pet.

 

[bky3c]

I say this as a dog owner and dog lover. Dogs are great. People who claim that their untrained dogs are service animals should be shown the door.

Another dog lover/owner here, with a relative who has a true service dog for true limitations (blindness, among other things). Few things make me more mad than irresponsible dog owners, whether it's not picking up poop or claiming they have a "service dog." Not only because it's unfair to the poor dog who gets sent off with animal control, but also because they give the rest of us responsible dog owners a bad name (service dog owners or pet owners). They are a big part of the reason a lot of public places don't allow dogs. Thanks to these idiots who try to pass off their untrained pet as a service animal, there's very often discrimination against people who have real limitations for which they use the help of a real service dog who has been through extremely rigorous training.

 

[BoardingDoc]

Do you call animal control? How long does it take them to respond? Sure, if they're in clinic GTFO but I don't think there's an EMTALA carveout for refusing to stabilize a patient because of a pet.

I haven't had to call animal control in the ED, but yes, that would be my next step. To your point, I'm not risking an EMTALA violation so I'm going to be abundantly clear that the patient can stay but the animal needs to go in accordance with ADA regulations and then I'll call animal control if the patient doesn't have someone else.

Clinic is obviously much easier as I'm not required to see anyone I don't want to. Swear at staff? Fired. Fake service animal that's misbehaving? Fired. Habitually late / no show to appointments? Fired. Very cathartic after roughly a decade in the ED.

 

[sloh]

If a dog craps on the floor, you can have the patient send the dog home with someone else. The dog can't stay.

Truly sucks if your clinic has carpet flooring.

 

[Goro]

Truly sucks if your clinic has carpet flooring.

You can bill the patients for cleaning, right?

 

[AlmostAnMD]

You can bill the patients for cleaning, right?

Rofl

Couldn't even bill for the care they received some of the time

 

[WhatJobDoIPick]

Do you call animal control? How long does it take them to respond? Sure, if they're in clinic GTFO but I don't think there's an EMTALA carveout for refusing to stabilize a patient because of a pet.

No one's talking about refusing care.

 

[WorkNoteEmergency]

This story involves a dog in the ED but also one of my ED axioms - "If patient is wearing sunglasses, likelihood of true medical emergency drops precipitously"

I go to see a young-ish lady in a hallway bed; neck pain or something similar after MVA. She is wearing sunglasses. There is another lady sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed and a dog in some sort of vest nestled under the chair at that lady's feet. I start to question the patient about details of the crash. "Were you in front seat or back seat?" " I was driving doc." Well that explains a lot, of course you crashed, you're blind and driving a car. Turns out it was some sort of support dog and not a guide dog. After getting that crazy train back on the rails, I deftly fended off lady in the chair in her attempt to tag team into the medical evaluation (she was a passenger) and quickly got all 3 of them on their way and back to their sunglasses at night lifestyle.

My rural ER also had a couple that would visit infrequently and bring their two emotional support dogs that would often bark at staff when entering the room.