Since time immemorial—or at least the 1956 publication of “Old Yeller”—stories about remarkable dogs who save humans from death have abounded. But stories about remarkable dogs who help patients in need of emergency medical attention? Those have been less common—except for Lassie—until now. They’re getting out thanks to a new PLOS One study about the powerful effects of therapy dogs in the emergency department (ED).¹

Therapy Dogs Deliver the Data

Consider the tale of Murphy, a 10-year-old English springer spaniel who does the rounds throughout Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Not long ago, Murphy was visiting the ED at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital when he and his handler learned that a retired farmer, agitated after waiting two days for a bed, needed sedation. Murphy got the farmer’s permission to hop up onto his stretcher with him—and as the farmer stroked Murphy’s head, he told the spaniel about all the different dogs who had lived on his farm. “The man’s family was there, and they were crying,” says James Stempien, MD, co-author of the PLOS study, who is also provincial head of emergency medicine for the Saskatchewan HealthAuthority and University of Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon. After about fifteen minutes of communing with Murphy, the farmer told Dr. Stempien he’d be able to wait calmly a while longer without drugs; thanks to Murphy, he was plenty calm.

Dr. James Stempien (R) and Jane Smith (center) with Murphy and colleague Dr. Lindsey Broberg at a 2017 medical conference in Whistler, BC, where they presented earlier research about therapy dogs.

Though therapy dogs seem to be the exception rather than the rule in EDs, hospitals that use them find that they significantly benefit people being triaged: Canine companions reduced pain scores by more than half for 43 percent of patients, anxiety by more than half for 48 percent, and feelings of depression by more than half for 46 percent, as the PLOS paper reports. Similarly, a 2012 study in the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, which looked at therapy dogs in the EDs at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and at its Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, found that 93 percent of patients and 95 percent of staff approved of therapy dogs.²

Health and Hygiene

If the dogs are so clearly beneficial, then why aren’t they more common? Possibly because hospital administrators focus on risks rather than benefits, Dr. Stempien suggests. Certainly, the decision makers at Royal University Hospital initially resisted his proposal to use canine comforters in the ED, citing concerns that the animals might be dirty or badly behaved—though Dr. Stempien explained that therapy dogs are groomed before they enter the hospital; and only amicable, unflappable pets make the cut. Dr. Stempien also had to assure the hospital that any patients who were nervous around dogs wouldn’t have to interact with them: “If there was any anxiety on the patients’ part, the therapy dog team would respect that and wouldn’t go near them,” he says. Eventually, Dr. Stempien got the go-ahead—and plaudits ensued. “Once therapy dogs became a common occurrence in the ER, everyone understood their value,” he says.