You’re likely familiar with the federal regulations about service animals, which are animals (typically dogs) trained to perform tasks to benefit a person with a disability. Emotional support animals, however, are not covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act, and aren’t specially trained to assist disabled people. In addition, they can be any type or size of animal. Therefore, your practice should create a very specific policy guiding patients on when these animals are allowed and what the parameters are.
Check these seven guidelines as you develop your practice’s policy governing emotional support animals.
1. Determine Whether to Allow Them at All
Your first step is to evaluate whether to have a firm restriction on emotional support animals, as some practices have, or whether to allow them on a very specific basis. Barring them completely is simpler for your practice because it eliminates case-by-case considerations, but it may also turn off some patients, who don’t feel comfortable visiting a medical practice without their animal.
Ensure that the providers at your office are included when you’re deciding whether to restrict all non-service animals or not. Even if your office staff has an opinion in one direction, the doctors and other medical professionals may have other reasons for why they want or don’t want emotional support animals in the waiting room or examination rooms. For instance, an allergist may want to bar all non-service animals because some of their patients are allergic to animals.
2. If You Allow Emotional Support Animals, Clarify Circumstances
Some practices may choose to allow emotional support animals in certain situations, such as in cases of trauma, end-of-life care, or vulnerable populations. If this is the case for your practice, be extremely clear on when these animals are allowed and when they’re not.
For instance, don’t simply indicate that they’re allowed “for vulnerable patients.” This is too open to interpretation, and may confuse patients who don’t know whether they’re classifiable as vulnerable. Your policy must be extremely clear about the situations when these animals are allowed.
3. Clarify the Types and Sizes of Animals
If you decide to allow emotional support animals for certain patients, you should also clarify the types and sizes of animals that can come to your practice.
For instance, you might allow only dogs under 20 pounds, or perhaps you want to only accept cats that are in carriers. Be clear in your policy and don’t leave any room for interpretation. For instance, if you say, “small dogs,” that doesn’t tell patients what you classify as “small.”
4. Check Local Laws
While you’re planning to put your emotional support animal policy in place, make sure you check your local and state laws beforehand. Some states may have emotional support animal regulations in place that outline what you must allow, or that indicate places where non-service animals may not be indicated, such as hospitals. Always check these laws up front, and talk to an attorney if you have any confusion about the regulations.
5. Post Your Policy
Don’t make it hard for patients to find your emotional support animal policy. Include it with your new patient documents, hang it on your wall and post it on your website. You don’t want patients to have trouble locating it, and you want to make sure they’re able to consult it with questions.
6. Train Staff
Make sure your entire team knows what the emotional support animal policy is and how to enforce it or answer questions about it. This applies not only to your front desk staff, but also to your providers. They may not be accustomed to having animals in the room, so share scenarios on how to handle all of the situations they may encounter.
7. Be Consistent
Once your policy is in place, you must be consistent in applying it. So your policy simply says, “We allow dogs,” you can't turn someone away with a large breed that’s jumping up on your reception counter.
There’s a lot more to know about emotional support animals. Let attorney Diana Trevley, JD, CCEP-I, CIPP/E walk you through it during her latest online training, Meet Emotional Support Animal Legal Requirements to Avoid Practice Nightmares. Register today!
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The post 7 Tips for Creating Your Emotional Support Animal Policy appeared first on Healthcare Training Leader.