
The results of a recent survey of over 700 American hospitals were reported by the American Hospital Association by the non-profit Samueli Institute. They asked hospitals about their Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) offerings; a few highlights are below. The results are heartening for those wanting customized, full-spectrum integrative health care when needing hospital care.
The following are the top five most interesting findings:
1. 42% of the hospitals offer one or more CAM treatments. This is up 5% from the last survey in 2007.
2. CAM treatment types available at hospitals: massage, chiropractic, herbal medicine, homeopathy, nutritional counseling, acupuncture, smoking cessation, fitness training and more.
3. Top reasons hospitals offer CAM therapies: patient demand (#1) and clinical effectiveness (#2).
4. Top reason hospitals don't have more more CAM therapies: budgetary constraints.
5. And the number one most popular CAM therapy: massage therapy.
Hospitals benefit by being able to better optimize patient healing, recovery and pain management to name a few (which may result in shorter hospital stays, fewer complications and less medical intervention).
According to Nancy Foster, AHA's VP of quality and patient safety, patients benefit by these hospitals' "desire to treat the whole person—body, mind and spirit...Hospitals have long known that what they do to treat and heal involves more than just medications and procedures. It is about using all of the art and science of medicine to restore the patient as fully as possible.” Sounds like a game plan we all can agree on!
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