Describing a Facility Dog Program Facilitated by Certified Child Life Specialists: Productivity, Service Areas, and Interventions

Background Facility dog programs are increasingly common in pediatric healthcare, but little is known about those led by certified child life specialists (CCLS). This retrospective, descriptive study examined how CCLS at a large pediatric hospital integrated facility dogs into child life services and the impact on operations. Methods One year of CCLS documentation was examined including medical dog presence, patient age, service location, time spent, patient goals, interventions, and Psychosocial Risk Assessment in Pediatrics (PRAP) scores. Timecard data from all CCLS (N = 46) compared productivity between non-handlers (n = 38) to facility dog handlers (n = 8). Analyses included descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and logistic regression. Results A total of 6,039 facility dog encounters were analyzed. Encounters averaged 55 minutes, and the average patient age was 11. Most of the encounters occurred in the outpatient and acute inpatient settings, with therapeutic play and developmental support as the most common interventions. Facility dog handlers were significantly less productive than non-handlers when comparing the percentage of worked hours spent in direct patient care. Handlers spent significantly more time with patients at higher psychosocial risk and those in critical care, emergency, and inpatient settings. Conclusions Decreased productivity among facility dog handlers may affect child life operations. Longer facility dog interventions may be needed for higher risk patients and in complex service locations. These operational and clinical considerations are important for future implementation of facility dog programs led by CCLS. Further research is needed to explore their clinical impact in pediatric healthcare.