Lakeland Hospital expands K-9 security team at St. Joseph campus

Lakeland Hospital in St. Joseph, Michigan, is expanding its K-9 security team to meet the growing needs of the community and the health care system.

Hiro, and his handler, Chris Aungst, a retired Berrien County Sheriff's Department officer, started strolling the halls two weeks ago.

"The mental health crisis that we're going through [nationwide], the opioid crisis that we are going through right now really has driven that security presence [in hospitals] higher and higher and higher," explained Richard Matthews, director of security at Lakeland.

German Shepherd Inez and her handler, Bruce Modigell, were the inaugural members of the Lakeland K-9 security team two years ago. Recently, they were the first K-9 unit to a bomb threat at the YMCA. This partly inspired Matthews to ask the hospital for a second K-9 unit.

"What are other things we can do to help keep the community safe also?" Matthews raised.

Hiro, an 18-month-old German Shepherd from Slovakia, is getting accustomed to riding elevators and the hospital floors. He is trained to detect at least 10 different scents, including certain explosives.

Hiro has yet to de-escalate situations of disorderly conduct. But Matthews can testify of the success Inez has had in calming potentially violent incidences.

"If we've got disorderly conduct going on, we bring that dog in and just have the dog sit by the door. You see the escalation starting to drop," he said.

Still, the K-9 teams work to keep patients at ease.

"We're here as much for safety and security as comforting patients," Aungst said.

Hiro and Inez, along with their handlers, train with local police departments in case they have to respond to calls outside Lakeland Hospital.