QUESTION:
What are some ADA-specific considerations for allowing patients to bring service animals to the hospital?
ANSWER FROM HORTYSPRINGER ATTORNEY MOISES A. TONOC BONILLA:
Under the American with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), patients who require the services of a service animal are generally permitted to bring their service animal with them to a hospital. However, the ADA protections granted to service animals do not apply to emotional support animals; therefore, hospitals may prohibit patients from bringing emotional support animals to the hospital. Hospitals may impose rules and restrictions for managing service animals in their facilities.
Title III of the ADA requires hospitals and other places of public accommodation to modify policies, practices, and procedures to permit individuals with a disability to use a service animal. Service animals must be under the handler’s control. The ADA regulations require handlers control their service animals with a harness, leash, or other tether, unless the handler is unable to use said harness leash or tether because of a disability or said harness, leash, or tether would interfere with the service animal’s safe and effective performance of work or tasks. The hospital may request that the service animal be removed if (1) the animal is out of control and the animal’s handler does not take effective action to control it, or (2) the animal is not housebroken.
Under the ADA, a “service animal” means any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefits of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual or other mental disability. The “works performed” by a service animal must be directly related the individual’s disability. For example, a dog who assists an individual who is blind or has low vision by navigating the person throughout a facility, or a dog who helps a person with psychiatric and neurological disabilities by preventing or interrupting impulsive or destructive behaviors performs works or tasks that meet the service animal requirement.
Importantly, other species of animals are not considered service animals (however, the ADA does require accommodations for people who use miniature horses similarly to service animals in specific circumstances). Additionally, an animal’s presence or the provision of emotional support, well-being, comfort, or companionship does not constitute works or tasks for the purposes of identifying an animal as a “service animal.” Why? According to the Department of Justice, the difference between a service animal and an emotional support animal is determined by the work or task that the animal performs. A service animal, unlike an emotional support animal, is trained to respond to an individual’s need. For example, if a service animal senses a person is about to have a psychiatric episode and it is trained to respond by nudging, barking, or moving the individual to a safe location until an episode subsides, the animal “performs a task” or has “done work” on behalf of the individual with a disability rather than simply sensing that an event has occurred. Thus, an emotional support animal, which typically is not trained to recognize and respond to an episode, but rather comforts or provides companionship as a result of a person’s episode, does not perform works or tasks and is therefore excluded from the “service animal” definition.
If it is unclear whether someone’s dog is a service animal, a place of public accommodation may only ask two questions pertaining the service animal: (1) Is the service animal required because of a disability? (2) What work or task has the dog been trained to perform? Under the ADA, it is unlawful to (1) ask about the nature and extent of the person’s disability, (2) request any documentation that the service animal is registered, licensed, or certified as a service animal, or (3) ask the handler to pay a surcharge where a surcharge would otherwise be appropriate. The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division has no shortage of information, including its Service Animals ADA Requirements: Service Animals, and Frequently Asked Questions about Service Animals and the ADA webpages.
If you have a quick question about this, e-mail Moises A. Tonoc Bonilla at mtonocbonilla@hortyspringer.com.