Michigan Medicine’s Lipschutz-Danzansky Family Paws4Patients program is a donor-funded initiative that puts full-time therapy dogs in hospital units for the purpose of supporting families, patients, and staff. These specially trained dogs work alongside clinicians to help foster calm, reduce anxiety, and bring a sense of joy to an intimidating environment. Ann Arbor City Lifestyle spoke with Paws4Patients Program Coordinator Jessica Doletzky to learn how the program began, what a typical day looks like for the dogs, and why the program continues to grow.
How did Paws4Patients start, and what inspired its creation?
Paws4Patients launched in 2016 with a grant and two full-time hospital dogs: Anna and Denver. Anna worked with spiritual care, and Denver supported the pediatric ICU. However, we quickly saw that two dogs weren’t enough to meet the hospital’s demand—that’s when we started expanding. Today, we have seven dogs—Anna, Fawn, Bugle, McCoy, Barney, Dash, and London—each assigned to specific hospital units based on their temperament and the needs of their handlers.
How do the therapy dogs help patients and families? Do they help the hospital staff as well?
When a facility dog walks into a room, they often gravitate toward whoever needs support most—sometimes that’s the patient, but often it’s a parent or even a staff member. The dogs are trained to assess the space, check in with everyone, and then settle where they’re most needed. It’s powerful to watch, especially in pediatric settings, where parents tend to put their own well-being aside. The dogs offer comfort, lower stress, and bring a sense of calm.
They help staff, too—often attending meetings or simply showing up during difficult times. Some handlers track daily interactions, and it’s not unusual for a dog to connect with hundreds of people in a single shift. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
What does a typical day look like for a Paws4Patients dog?
They come to work like a 9–5 job. When they put their vests on, they’re professional. They might attend therapy groups, check in with patients, go on rounds, or sit through meetings. They have break times, outdoor time, and places to rest in the office. And when the vest comes off at the end of the day, they’re just regular dogs again—playful, goofy, relaxed.
What does the future hold for Paws4Patients? Are there any plans to expand?
Yes, we are continuing to expand. Our goal is to add at least one team every other year. We have, I think, close to 30 areas that have requested dogs or placements within Michigan Medicine, so we have a lot of units, a lot of staff, and a lot of teams that are very interested in getting their own facility dog.
My job is to help walk through that process—interview teams, work with development, and see where the next placement might be the best fit. We’re in the process of placing a dog we hope to have by the end of this year, and I’m already looking ahead to the next couple of years to figure out where those placements might land.
Finally, what do you believe is the most rewarding part of Paws4Patients?
Just seeing how intelligent and how incredible these dogs are. They're really well trained, but more than that, these dogs have such a high emotional intelligence that watching them work—each of them have their own personalities and how they act outside of work—but just watching what they're able to do and how they're able to help families, patients and the staff has been incredible.
"These dogs have such a high emotional intelligence that watching them work [and] how they're able to help families, patients and the staff has been incredible."
— Jessica Doletzky, Paws4Patients program coordinator