How many of your hospitals/clinics offer alternative medicine?

sethmctenn · Mar 1, 2010

At my hospital, we have massage therapists (some of whom also do Reiki) and acupuncturists with hospital privileges. Both have been well accepted. I believe they handle it on a fee for service basis rather than the services being billed through the hospital. There are also numerous nurses who have taken Therapeutic Touch training. There are good studies on massage and acupuncture. They are both fairly mainstream now.

silas2642 · Mar 1, 2010

Watched a show yesterday that mentioned a number of hospitals are offering alternative medicine - especially in Oncology units.
Things like acupuncture, suction treatment, and something else that I cannot remember the name of (Japanese custom where hands are run down the body very lightly to channel out bad energy).
A lot of the cancer survivors (most of them were peds who are now teens) attributed alternative medicine to helping cure their cancer and keep them positive during chemo treatment.
What's everyone think on this? Is alternative medicine something that should be offered in all Hospitals?
I recently had an NP recommend I look into acupuncture for chronic pain I suffer as a result of disabilities.

I don't know if all hospitals should offer it, but I will say that many alternative treatments like acupuncture and chiropractic adjustments, while not necessarily helpful have been studied to be safe. If it isn't going to harm the patient and makes him/her feel better, I say go for it.

DirtyBlackSocks · Mar 1, 2010

On a side note, the hospitals in question on the show offered all of these treatments free of charge to cancer patients. The specialists in whatever field were paid by the hospital for their work, but it was not passed on to be the patients burden. I thought that was pretty cool.

Too bad you don't see that kind of empathy in all our hospitals.

prowlingMA · Mar 1, 2010

The clinic I work at has a massage therapist come maybe once a month who does sliding scale fee. A lot of the staff get massages when he is here too. We also have a meditation room ( which no one ever uses).

Another hospital in the area has yoga for cancer patients and several other alternative therapies.

Lacourty · Mar 1, 2010

The hospital I work for has an MD who is also a doctor of Asian medicine. She provides acupuncture as well as other services to "balance the body and soul". The hospital also employs massage therapists. I have heard that DOs have a more alternative approach to medicine than compared to MDs. Doctors of osteopathy will do some chiropractic adjustments themselves. That's what an MD told me anyways.