Highlights
- •Eldercare facilities, hospitals, and therapy animal organizations were surveyed.
- •Health and safety policies for animal-assisted interventions (AAI) varied widely.
- •Some AAI policies potentially compromise human and animal safety.
- •In general, hospitals had stricter AAI requirements than eldercare facilities.
- •Programs should institute recent AAI guidelines to ensure human and animal safety.
Background
Animal-assisted intervention (AAI) programs are increasing in popularity, but it is
unknown to what extent therapy animal organizations that provide AAI and the hospitals
and eldercare facilities they work with implement effective animal health and safety
policies to ensure safety of both animals and humans. Our study objective was to survey
hospitals, eldercare facilities, and therapy animal organizations on their AAI policies
and procedures.
Methods
A survey of United States hospitals, eldercare facilities, and therapy animal organizations
was administered to assess existing health and safety policies related to AAI programs.
Results
Forty-five eldercare facilities, 45 hospitals, and 27 therapy animal organizations
were surveyed. Health and safety policies varied widely and potentially compromised
human and animal safety. For example, 70% of therapy animal organizations potentially
put patients at risk by allowing therapy animals eating raw meat diets to visit facilities.
In general, hospitals had stricter requirements than eldercare facilities.
Discussion
This information suggests that there are gaps between the policies of facilities and
therapy animal organizations compared with recent guidelines for animal visitation
in hospitals.
Conclusions
Facilities with AAI programs need to review their policies to address recent AAI guidelines
to ensure the safety of animals and humans involved.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 30, 2017
Footnotes
Presented in abstract form at the 2014 International Society for Anthrozoology Conference, Vienna, Austria, July 19, 2014.
Supported, in part, by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, award Nos. KL2TR001063 and UL1TR001064. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
