Animal Policy at Western Missouri Medical Center

Service Animals at WMMC

Western Missouri Medical Center welcomes service animals at any of our facilities. We encourage you to talk with our staff about WMMC’s service animal requirements and any questions you may have.

Service animals are not allowed in areas where they are at risk to patients or themselves. These areas include our operating/procedure rooms and diagnostic imaging rooms.

WMMC staff may ask what work or task the animal is trained to perform to help you. Please tell anyone who approaches your service animal that they are interfering with your service animal’s ability to do their job.

If your service animal becomes a threat to others or harms another person, you may be asked to remove your service animal from the facility. WMMC will follow local and state reporting requirements if your service animal bites or scratches another person.

Visiting any hospital or healthcare clinic can increase the risk of a service animal acquiring an infection. WMMC is not responsible for costs related to an acquired infection.

Service Animal Requirements

Service animals in our facilities must be:

• Vaccinated in accordance with local, county and state requirements.
• Healthy, clean and groomed (no fleas, ticks, or sores)
• House broken
• Under your control (leash, harness, or other effective controls)
• Well-behaved (no uncontrolled barking, biting, or scratching).

Service animal owners are responsible for providing:

• Food, water and medicine needed by the service animal
• Food and water bowl
• Leash, harness or tether
• Plastic bags for solid waste

Service animals should be controlled with a leash, harness, or tether. If you cannot hold a leash, or if it would prevent the animal from performing its task, the service animal must be under your control through voice or hand commands.

Service animal owners or their designee are responsible for feeding, toileting, and watching over the service animal. WMMC is not responsible for watching over or otherwise caring for service animals. Please pick up solid waste in a plastic bag and throw away in an outside trash can.

For the safety of your service animal, we will ask you for the name of a person to contact if you are not able to communicate. Make sure to let the staff know about any of your arrangements to take care of the service animal if you cannot take care of the animal.

Emotional Support Animals

Although service animals are permitted in hospitals under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA does not expressly grant emotional support animals (ESAs) and therapy animals’ access to hospitals. Please ask our staff for more information regarding your emotional support animal’s access to our facilities.