The HHP's Inpatient Acupuncture Discussion Group

last updated 7.3.2023

5.1.2022 topic: inpatient setting work, healthcare system-based employment, community group, workgroups, resources, 2023 inpatient acupuncture conference recordings and resources

Inpatient Acupuncture Services, Did You Know?

Inpatient acupuncture services are a non-drug way to improve sleep, decrease pain & anxiety, alleviate some side effects of conventional treatment, and reduce the complexity of med profiles. This is especially prominent in Children’s hospitals. Research has shown that patient use of inpatient acupuncture services decreases the overall patient length of stay and decreases frequent readmission rates. (So it saves the healthcare system money while improving patient outcomes when you take a long-term view.)

Having access to a licensed acupuncturist (or team of them) for the inpatient setting has been shown (in published research studies) to:

• For the hospital: decrease hospital’s costs (cost savings) & decreases the chance of readmission within 30 days (Medicare QA metric)

• For the patient: improves pain management, decreases nausea & fatigue, improves appetite, improves sleep. For the patient in the inpatient setting this translates to a less complex med profile while at the hospital, and often a shortened stay at the hospital (vs. no access to this care).

The HHP-hosted Inpatient Acupuncture Discussion group

At the HHP, we have been hosting discussion space for hospital and healthcare system-based colleagues since 2015 on various platforms. In late August/early September 2022, we moved all our discussion spaces (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc), to one platform, hosted on Mighty Networks. As part of this move, the feedback from the community was to have a dedicated inpatient acupuncture discussion space that is separate from all the other outpatient general discussions.

So, as of January 2022, we created a dedicated closed discussion group on our new community discussion platform.

In January 2023 we hosted the Inaugeral Inpatient Acupuncture Conference. Materials (pdfs, slides) and session recordings are available post-conference to Tier 2 subscribers. Learn more about community platform subscription options and conference material access here: https://community.thehospitalhandbook.com/

To Join:

1. First, join the Tier 2 Big Bundle community discussion platform. Tier 2 is the dedicated platform for those currently working in healthcare system-based practice. Learn more at the Tier 2 landing page.

2. Then, when completing your profile, identify yourself as working in the inpatient setting.

3. Once you’ve joined, if you’d like to take an active role in the Inpatient Acupuncture Workgroup, message the current board members and workgroup lead(s) with your interest.

Closed discussion group. Access to Tier 2 “Big Bundle” platform members available, upon request. Read on for more details.

Why the HHP Inpatient Acupuncture Discussion Group is Worthy of Your Support

This HHP-hosted discussion space connects inpatient LAc clinicians & program managers across the country to share issues, barriers to access, innovations, and the ability to discuss solutions together. Discuss and develop practice standards together.
This is a unique resource that has the potential to improve current inpatient integrative health care & access AND helps disseminate best practices to current and FUTURE inpatient acupuncture services in the U.S.

More info about this unique discussion group: who can join & topics in the discussion

This group, per community request, is a closed discussion group. It is open to LAc clinicians and program managers/directors working in an inpatient acupuncture program or working on setting up an inpatient acupuncture program. The Inpatient Acupuncture Discussion group is one of several workgroups the HHP is supporting (2021 - 2023) and possibly in the future, depending on our available resources. It is a great way to meet others who are working in this unique practice area to share ideas, issues & possible solutions and more.

Topics discussed in this dedicated asynchronous discussion space include, but are not limited to:

• funding and reimbursement models

• coding and documentation standards

• specialties within the inpatient service

• tracking clinical metrics and personnel metrics.

Due to low funding, this discussion space is primarily asynchronous. We would love to host more live virtual (zoom) community discussion sessions and presentations for this group, but those incur direct outgoing costs. And the HHP is not yet fully funded for the year. Please help us reach our goal to cover our basic operating costs by joining the community discussion platform and donating to the workgroup’s work.

An example of a live presentation for this group go to this April 2022 event. Unfortunately, we were not able to bring in enough funding to cover the costs of processing the recording. So, we will need to wait until enough funds come in before we can begin the many steps of processing the recording.

I will be highlighting the HHP’s Inpatient Acupuncture Discussion group in my portion of the group presentation at the Academic Consortium’s 2022 International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health. This group presentation was on Thursday, May 26th, 2022. More information about this presentation on our event page.

How you can support

• Donate to the HHP’s work.

• If you currently work in an inpatient acupuncture setting, join the Community Discussion Platform. Tier 2 “big bundle” subscription option is recommended because it includes access to the 2023 Inaugural Inpatient Acupuncture conference materials and more.

• Support through buying something from our website store.

As of April 1st, 2023, The Hospital Handbook Project for Acupuncturists and Their Hospital Sponsors is a program of the Society of Hospital & Healthcare System-based Acupuncturists, a nonprofit organization based in the U.S.A. This is a new (2023) nonprofit. Our 501c3 status is pending.