Synergy Doesn't Happen in Silos: Acupuncture in
Hospitals and Other Healthcare Settings
By Beth Sommers, PhD, MPH, LAc and
Kristen Porter, MS, MAc, LAc
As acupuncture and traditional East
Asian medicine continue to intersect and integrate with biomedical approaches,
the conversation about integration expands and becomes richer. One forum for
these conversations is the Academic Consortium of Complementary and Alternative
Health Care (ACCAHC).
ACCAHC, founded in 2004, envisions
and is involved in co-creating a system of health care that is
multidisciplinary and dedicated to health and healing. Based on mutual respect
among all providers, ACCAHC works toward creating an environment of
collaboration that is based on patient-centered care.
ACCAHC's mission is to enhance the
health of individuals and communities. Valuing diversity of practice,
institutional members include the Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and
Oriental Medicine (CCAOM), the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and
Oriental Medicine (ACAOM), and the National Certification Commission for
Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM), as well as 14 other educational,
accrediting, and testing bodies associated with Ayurvedic medicine,
chiropractic, homeopathy, massage, midwifery, naturopathic medicine, and yoga.
Working groups within ACCAHC include members focused on clinical care,
education, research and policy.
ACCAHC's strong commitment to
professional education has been reflected in many of its projects, including a
recent webinar on the role of integrative health in influencing patient outcome
and experiencecalled the Power of Choice in Patient Experience Improvement: The
Critical Role for Integrative Health.
[images 1 r]John Weeks, Executive
Director of ACCAHC and publishing editor of the Integrator Blog, is a strong
proponent of patient-centered care. He notes that much of what is called health
care in this country is actually "a medical industry which unfortunately
thrives on disease." Because of his concern about health professionals
working in silos, without communication or collaboration, Weeks is gratified to
witness the increasing level of integration that acupuncture has achieved in
the hospital environment, particularly in the Veterans Administration system
with which he shared various ACCAHC resources on acupuncture and other
disciplines when he was invited to advise in 2014.
Weeks' spoke about "active
diplomacy" on the part of acupuncturists and other integrative health care
providers as we play more visible roles in hospitals and other community health
settings. He stated that because acupuncturists are "part of a team
approach to care, acupuncturists bring a unique perspective to patient care,
one that, to be most effective, must be both grounded in modern day biomedical
research and evaluation as well as in the ‘evidence of the old masters.'"
In 2007, Weeks and colleagues
produced a document entitled "Survey of MDs/Administrators of Integrative
Clinics to Gather Information on Competencies of Licensed Acupuncturists for
Practice in Hospitals, Integrated Centers and Other Conventional Healthcare
Settings." This document was produced by the National Education Dialogue
to Advance Integrated Health Care and ACCAHC for the Integrated Healthcare
Policy Consortium and sponsored by NCCAOM. Surveys were completed by ten
respondents (nine MDs and one RN). The core themes related to determining
appropriate competencies for acupuncturists identified by the survey were:
To read more, click here.
