CAP's Case of the Month: How Questioning a Patient's Service Dog Led to a Lawsuit
What happens when a healthcare facility questions whether a service dog is truly a service animal? This Case of the Month shows why the answer is not as simple as it seems and provides guidance about what physician practices can, and cannot, do when a patient arrives with a service dog.
In the 2019 case of C.L. v. Del Amo Hospital, Inc., the court addressed whether a hospital’s refusal to accommodate a patient’s self-described service animal violated the ADA. The patient, C.L., who suffered from severe childhood trauma, major depression, and anxiety, relied on her service dog to wake her from nightmares, alert her to people approaching, and “ground” her. Despite being unable to afford a professionally trained service dog, she purchased a dog and trained it to assist with her specific needs.
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