Horse Manure! (It's Therapeutic!)
I invite you to read this
eye-opening article run by the
New Yorker some time back about therapy animals. It's truly ridiculous what people can get away with these days. I found the article entertaining, as I have run into similar requests at work.
About a year ago in my office my partner was confronted by a therapy rat. Yes, a rat. The rat was in a bag around the patient's neck and it perched on her shoulder while she was having her blood pressure taken. I give the medical assistant credit for not shrieking during this process. After a hasty discussion with risk management the rat was placed into the patient's mother's custody and evicted to the hallway. Legally speaking, the only formally recognized service animals are dogs and miniature horses. ("You mean ponies?" I asked. "No, miniature horses" was the reply.)
I have gotten my fair share of requests to write letters allowing patients to take their pets - they are
not service animals - just about anywhere. I usually decline, unless the patient has a known psychiatric or medical issue which really requires taking the animal with them. If it's psychiatric, they need to be seeing, or to have seen, a psychiatrist. It bugs the heck out of me when I see people playing the system like this.
Labels: Medicine, Twenty-First Century Crap
posted by Dr. Alice at #
